Max's Story
by NocturnalFerri
Summary: Author insertion story for my little bro, so all you other ppl, read at your own risk. How I think the 3rd season shoulda been. The Pokemon and Digiworld merge. Chaos results along with new digidestined to clean it up.
1. Welcome to Odaiba

"Max's Story 2000 / 2001"

By NocturnalFerri

Disclaimer: I don't own these guys! I told you sooo many times already! Leave me alone!!! I own the D3s though. Heh, Ntropy Jinjo, Travis and Sefie are mine. All mine!!!! Muahahahaha! Max…well, he owns himself. Hee hee.

To Max on his 11th birthday….er, and 12th. And…13th.  Yeah, it's taken me sooo long. Heh. Sorry Mackkers. I hope you like it. You better like it! Grr…arg…

AN: To those readers who aren't my brother…Yes, this is a complete author insertion story. Read at your own risk. There's plenty of inside jokes and stuph. I only posted this so that my bro could have access to the story, seein' that I'm livin' away from home on campus. Takes place after my other story (predictably named "Max's Story") about my brother goin' out on his Pokémon journey. 

Chapter One: Welcome to Odaiba 

"Did you finish unpacking your stuff yet, Max?"

Eleven-year-old Maxim Fernando, Pokémon Master of the Kanto and Johto and Orange Leagues, rolled his eyes at his mom's persistent, though not demandingly so, voice. "I'm working on it mom." He yelled back. Max shut the door to his new room. High above the ground in the Odaiba terrace apartments, the little room had a great view, just not of the place Max wanted to see. It wasn't the shoreline of Cerulean, nor was it the plains of the Safari Zone, nor was it the Viridian forest. It was Odaiba, Japan. Max scrunched up his face. Odaiba seemed nice enough, though he had only been there little over a day, and that was spent unpacking.

Max took his Pokémon decorated pen and slit open the top of yet another packing box. Pushing aside the millions and millions of Styrofoam popcorn thingies he pulled out his Pokémon league trophy and set it carefully on the shelf. Max ran his finger over the inscription on the bottom; bearing his name and the date he won the tournament. He grinned, remembering his idol, Pokémon Master Ash Ketchum shaking his hand and presenting him with the trophy. He pulled out a framed picture, taken right before they left Kanto. Max sniffled a little at the memory. It was the last time he had seen his Pokémon. Pocket Monsters were really special animals.  They can't survive outside of the Pokémon islands of Kanto, Orange and Johto. It was something in the atmosphere that affected their systems. Max set the photo down next to his bed and touched the fuzzy yellow spot. It was his Pikachu; his best buddy to the end ever since he had found the Pokémon in the Viridian forest during his first venture out as a Pokémon trainer. It was the same Pichu that had ridden in the hood of his sweater for months, much to his discomfort.

Max yanked off the red and white Pokémon hat from his head and flung it into the closet. "How can I be a Pokémon master if I can't even have any of my Pokémon?" he sat down dejectedly on the bed. He looked at the vidphone sitting on his night table. "I guess it wouldn't hurt." he picked up the receiver and dialed in Professor Monahan's number. He keyed in his special trainer number to get access to the Johto area. Not a lot of people left the Pokémon islands, nor did anyone outside know too much about them. It wasn't like it was a secret or anything, they just didn't like interference. The phone rang a few more times until Professor Monahan picked up. "Professor!" 

She smiled at him. "Hello Max. How are you?"

"Ok, just homesick." Admitted Max.

"But you've only been there for two days."

"I know. I miss all of my Pokémon. How's my Pichu?"

"Ask him for yourself." Said Monahan. She turned to the side and called out, "Pichu! Come here! No no, not you Pichu. The other Pichu. Not you either! Max' Pichu. Yeah, now you got it." The sound of frantic paws scurrying to the phone were heard. A little Pichu burst onto the screen, skidding into the keyboard and mouse.   
            "PICHU!" it yelled. It jumped up and down at the sight of its master. "PipipipipipiPichu!" 

"Nice to see you too Pichu!"

Pichu pressed its paws against the screen and licked it, as it were Max himself. It pulled back when it realized the screen didn't taste very good. "Piiuuuu."

Max laughed. "Aw, I miss you too Pichu."

"Pichuchu Pichupi?"

Its master shook his head. "No, I don't know when I'm coming back. Hopefully I can come back for summer break, but that's a long time from now."

"Pii…"

"It's ok, I said I'd call a lot." Said Max. "How are my other Pokémon? You having fun there?"

Pichu nodded emphatically and said something along the lines of yes. It then cocked its head to the side and asked a rather long question. Max pouted. "I'm sorry Pichu, but you know you can't come here. You wouldn't be able to survive. You know you would already be here if it were possible."

Pichu nodded sullenly. Monahan patted Pichu's head. "I need to speak with Max for a moment, okay?" Pichu nodded. 

"What's up professor?"

Monahan looked side to side, checking if the coast was clear. "Is Dexter working?"

"Huh?"

"Is Dexter working?" repeated Monahan. 

"Uh, yeahhhhnnnoooooo…" 

"Yes or no?"

"Uh…"

"Check!" Commanded Monahan. Max obediently fished the computer out of one of the packing boxes and flipped it open. The screen was flickering. 

"Huh?!"

Monahan frowned. "Darn, I was hoping it wouldn't effect you."

"What wouldn't affect me?"

The professor looked very worried. "There's something wrong with the league computers.

"Did you fix it?"

Monahan had a 'duh' look ion her face. "Obviously not since your Dex isn't working either."

"I knew that." Backpedaled Max. 

 "Professor Oak and a team of specialists are working on fixing the glitch. That reminds me, could you ask your sister to take a look at it?"

"I will." 

"There's something else," said Monahan. "A lot of Pokémon have started to disappear. I think Team Rocket's going on a stealing spree, but we haven't gotten any evidence."

"Have Ash and misty looked into it?"

"They're hunting down Jessie and James this very moment. They're always good to egg for information." Monahan tapped her chin. "The number of wild Pokémon has decreased as well as the number of captured Pokémon. The weird thing is, the Pokémon have disappeared from inside their pokéballs."

"That's weird."

An assistant called to the professor from off screen. She turned around briefly. "I have to get back to work. I'll keep you informed, okay?"

 "Right. See ya. Bye!" Max hung up. He looked at his Dex. "ATE!"

Seconds later, a very annoyed 16-year-old Alexis poked her head into his room. "S'up Mack. I'm busy."

"Look at your Pokédex."

Alexis eyed him suspiciously. "Why?" before he could answer she pulled the computer out of her pocket and looked at it. "Hey, what the-"

"I just called Professor Monahan. She said something's wrong with the Pokémon computer system. She wants you to take a look at it."

"Dude, sounds bad." Commented Alexis.

"She also says a lot of Pokémon have been disappearing. Check that too."

"Right," She pocketed Dex and headed out of the room, presumably to plant herself in front of her computer. "Laterz."

Max looked at his own Dex and set it on the nightstand. He didn't exactly understand what was going on except for the fact his Pokémon were in trouble. He flopped facedown on his bed. Now he really wanted to go home. 

"Yo Mackkers! Wake up!"

Max's eyelids flickered open, his eyeballs rolled back in his head then closed after seeing it was only his sister. "Mmmmggggg?"

Alexis shook his shoulder. "Get up Mackkers!" She whacked his legs with a pillow. "School! Today! Now! Breakfast! Waffles!"

His eyes snapped open wide and turned his nose up into the air. "Waffles?"

Alexis rolled his eyes and leapt off his bed. "Go figure. No good morning Ate. No 'How are you doing Ate?' but 'Waffles". Hmmph." She closed the door.

Minutes later, Max emerged into the kitchen with a sleepy expression on his face and dragging behind him his book bag. "M'ing."

"'Morning, Mackie-boy." Greeted his mom. "Did you find the clothes I set out for you?" She eyed Max's yellow button down shirt, blue vest and jeans. "I guess so."

Max plunkered down in a chair and started wolfing down his waffles. "Yum." In between gulps he asked. "Where's Ate?" 

"Here." Max looked up. His eyes went wide and almost choked on his waffles. Alexis frowned and tugged at the skirt of her green high school uniform. "Yuck. I know. It's the real sucky part about being in high school." She grabbed her black messenger bag and flew out the door. "Ja ne!"

The stunned eleven-year-old shook his head and tried to recover. "Weird…" 

Sixteen-year-old Yolei Inoue sighed and crossed her legs. "Where is everybody?"

"Saving the digital world again, I suppose." Replied her boyfriend Koushiro Izumi as he tapped at his pineapple computer. "Hey, what's up with this?"

Yolei looked, reached over and popped open a small hatch at the back, took off her earring, and pushed something with its tip.

A beep came from the computer, signaling its working order. "Hey, prodigious. Thanks."

"Anytime." Yolei hooked the earring back into her ear.

"'Hope we're not interrupting anything." They looked up and saw Taichi Kamiya, the esteemed leader of the original Digidestined approach, flanked by his girlfriend of three years, Sora Takenouchi, and his best friend, Matt Ishida.

"Not at all." Grinned Izzy.

They all took their spots on the steps of the apartment complex's courtyard, their meeting spot for years. Izzy and Yolei were on the top steps, Matt was perched on the railing, and Tai and Sora were seated on the middle steps.

"Matt, how'd the band practice go yesterday?" asked Yolei.

The blond bassist shrugged. "Not bad. We still don't have enough stuff down for the record." He hit Tai's shoulder lightly. "We're gonna need you to play your sax number again. Travis messed up the track." (AN: "Taichi's theme from the movie! Hee hee. Pretend he can play it!)

"Again?" groaned Tai. "That's the fourth time this week!"

"Yeah, I know." Said Matt. "The kid means well, but personally I think he should stick to playing guitar and away from the mixing equipment."

"I second that." Agreed Tai.

"Give Travis a break," Said Sora. "He's just a kid." 

"We said he meant well," said Tai. "He's just not so…uh, experienced in hooking up wires and stuff."

"Look who's talking, mister  'Maybe-if-Agumon-and-I-give-it a whack-it'll-work.'" Retorted Izzy. 

"Hey! Sorry we're late!" the voice came from fourteen year olds Kari Kamiya, Davis Motomiya, and Takaru Takahashi running at them full speed. Kari lagged behind a little, tripping on the heels of her regulation styled shoes. Now in high school, the three of them were donned in the green uniform of Odaiba high school, though now a bit rumpled. They screeched to a halt, panting for breath. 

Davis collapsed into a sitting position on the ground. "We were up most of last night finishing up a project. Darn global history teacher!!" he yelled.

"Don't forget about the math test we were cramming for." Added TK. He rubbed his eyes. "I don't care how cool high school looks, it totally bites!" He and Kari slumped against the railing and sank to the floor.

"High school doesn't bite," Said Yolei. "I kinda like it."

"Easy for you to say," said TK. "You guys are all upperclassmen."

The eldest of the bunch looked at each other and gave each other high fives. "Upperclassmen pride!" yelled out Yolei and Matt. The freshmen shook their heads and sweat dropped.

"Correction, " said TK. "Being an underclassmen-

"And Underclasswomen," interrupted his girlfriend Kari. 

"And Underclasswomen, sucks." Finished TK.

"Wait up a second," Said Sora. "Where are Joe and Cody?"

"College guy probably finishing up some medical thesis paper or something." Remarked Tai.

"Eeehhk, wrong." Joe came from behind and stood besides them. "College guy had to look for his socks. I finished my paper yesterday." 

"Sorry I'm late," Piped a timid voice. It was Cody Hida, decked out in his usual light brown tunic and gray pants. Though already eleven, he hadn't changed much appearance wise. His hair was still shorn close to his scalp but he had grown taller quickly, though not as fast as TK had. "Alarm clock." He said, in way of apology. All of them stood and began to walk in the general direction of their schools. Cody ended up trailing them all as they launched into various high school topics. He jogged further into the group. "You guys don't have to wait or me. I don't even go to your school."

Kari nudged his shoulder. "We want to. You're one of us!"

Cody shrugged. "I know, it's weird, being the youngest one. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, right?"

"Hey, I was the youngest one for a while," Said TK. "And I survived."

"True." Admitted Cody. 

"Uh, 'scuse me." Piped a voice behind them. All them stopped and looked. Standing there was a kid no older than eleven with spiked brown hair. "Uh, hi. I was wondering if any of you went to Odaiba junior high school." 

"Sorry, we all go to the High School," said Tai. The kid's face fell. "But Cody over there does." 

"All right!" Cried the boy. "Could you could show me where it is? I'm new here and it's my first day."

"Hey, no problem." Said Cody. He looked back at his friends. "I'll see you guys after school." They all waved and resumed walking. Cody turned back to the kid who was fidgeting beneath his gaze. 

"What's your name?"

"Max." replied the boy.  

Cody pointed down the street. "The school's down there, we can't miss it." Max nodded. "You aren't from Japan are you?"

Max blinked in surprise. "Uh, how'd you know?"

"Your accent." Said Cody. "And your Japanese is kind of shaky."

"Heh heh, yeah, I know. I'm just learning."

"So, where are you from?"

"I'm from the Kanto Islands. Have you heard of them?"

"Sorry." Apologized Cody. "It sounds familiar though. Like something I heard in global studies class." 

"Probably." The two boys headed into the tall brick building that was Odaiba Junior high. 


	2. Pixelitious

Chapter Two: Pixelititious  

A group of teenagers were clustered together in the courtyard of Odaiba High school, taking advantage of their free period. Kari, Davis and TK were pouring over their notes and textbooks. Davis looked like he was on the verge of crying. "I hate math, I hate history, I hate French, I hate English, I hate-

            "Hate is a very strong word, Davis." Pointed out TK.

            "Fine! I really dislike math, I really dislike history, I really-

            "Can it Davis," sighed TK.

            "You can't tell me what to do. I'm the 02 leader!" said Davis, puffing up his chest.

            "Davis." The fourteen year old immediately froze at Tai's voice. Davis' hero worship of the teenager had toned down through the years, but he still held his mentor in high regard. "Be quiet."

            "Ok." Davis ducked his head back into his book.

             Kari closed hers and rubbed her eyes. "Ugh, break. I need a break." A giant yawn escaped her lips. "Forget a break, I need caffeine." Izzy reached into his bag and handed Kari a neon green soda can. "Jolt Cola?"

            Izzy grinned. "Two times the sugar, twice the caffeine. The official beverage for all those late night hacks." Izzy and Yolei looked at each other and pumped their fists in the air.

            "Hack the planet!"

            The rest of the Digidestined sweat-dropped. "I think you've guys watched that movie way too much." Commented Sora.

            "Seriously," said Yolei. "You guys all right? You kinda look wasted."

            "The work. Dislike. First year. HS. Toughest. Remember?" said TK. His brain was still working on putting together full sentences.

            "We know, said Matt. "We all went through that. You just gotta keep things in proportion and don't overwork yourself."

            Yolei tapped Izzy's shoulder. "Hey, lemmie borrow your laptop for a couple minutes. I forgot to ask Cody to check up on Armadillomon. He said he was feeling a bit under the weather lately." Izzy grudgingly handed over his prized pineapple laptop. Yolei booted it up and started tapping away. Izzy fidgeted, eager to get his computer back into his own hands. "Almost done, don't worry your cute little head." Said Yolei. "Done, I'll log out…Hey!" she exclaimed. "Is it supposed to do that?"

            Izzy panicked. "What? What happened?" The screen began flickering. "Ahh!" he snatched the laptop away from Yolei. "I don't understand. What's going on?" he looked the info over. "It's a virus!" he moaned.

            "How'd it get a virus?" said Yolei. "I didn't touch anything. I swear!"

            Izzy frowned deeply. "I'm not certain. I'm sure I scanned it for viruses the last time I was online and I'm not logged in now…wait!" his fingers flew about the board furiously. "I'm linked into the digital world. It must be from there." 

            "The Digiworld?!" 

            "Wait." Said Izzy. He read the screen for a moment. "Uh oh."

            "What do you mean, 'uh oh'?"  Demanded Tai. "'Uh oh' doesn't sound very good."

            Izzy muttered a few choice swears, something about the portal being the son of a blender.

"What's going on Izzy?" asked Tai.

Izzy hurriedly tapped at hot keys, trying to regain order to his computer. "It just shut off." The main screen came up and Izzy logged back onto the Digiworld. The screen flickered again, but this time, the colors pixilated and the edges of icons jaggied. The tiny squares of color began to move around the screen, bunching against a colored swirled background.

"Do something!" panicked Yolei.

Izzy's fingers scrambled across the keyboard. Lines and lines of data scrolled past the screen.

"What's that stuff mean?" demanded Davis. He watched Yolei and Izzy's eyes dart side to side on the screen, taking in the information.

"The data! It's being moved." Izzy frowned. " From what I can see, whatever it is is shifting data around, not destroying it."

"That's good, right?" asked Davis.

            "Not if the whole Digiworld is data." Said Yolei. 

"Exactly why this is classified as a crisis." Said Matt. "Look, can we get into the Digiworld and take a look around?

"How are we going to get into the Digiworld?" said Tai. "The portal is infected too."

"What makes you think that?" challenged Matt. Tai pointed to the screen. The Digiportal icon started to flash red, the universal "out of order" sign.

 "A virus?" suggested Tai. "I'm thinking Myotismon and Devimon."

"I don't think it's a virus type Digimon, " said Yolei. "The code's too erratic." She pointed to a line of code on the screen. "That. That's a virus Digimon file. It's being corrupted like all the rest. And virus wouldn't corrupt other viruses, would they? And look! It's being converted from a *.mon file to a *.gif.

"A picture file?" echoed Kari. 

"And that!" cried Yolei. That's a vile.mon file! Jeez, it's a text file now."

"There goes the beach we tried to phone home on," said Izzy. "Reduced to a .jpg."

"Permanently?" gasped Sora.

"Hopefully not." said Matt. "Izzy, anyway of reversing it?"

"I don't know! I don't know!" hissed Izzy, whipping his head around to glare at them. "I've never seen anything like this!"

"None of us have." said TK. "Would going into the Digiworld help?"

"It's worth a shot." Said Davis. He yanked his Digivice off his belt and held it out at the screen. "Digiportal activate!" Following Davis' lead, TK, Kari and Yolei did the same. The four of them stood there a full three seconds before realizing they weren't going digital. 

"Our turn." Said Tai. He, Sora, Matt and Izzy held out their Digivices. The screen sputtered a little before dying away. "At least we got a reaction."

"Uh, Izzy," Yolei tapped Izzy's shoulder. "There's something flashing here and it's making me really nervous. The Digivice icon is flashing and there's a big circle with a line through on it. It doesn't look very good." 

The group became silent, desperately thinking of a way to save the Digiworld again. Their concentration was broken by the shriek of the class bell. 

Davis gathered up his papers and tucked them into his bag. "Let's meet after school. At the computer club." They nodded in agreement. "I'll page Joe, hopefully college guy doesn't have a class. Izzy, meet up with Cody after school, will you?" 

"Sure."

As they went their separate ways, Yolei walked alongside Sora. With Mimi in the US, Sora turned out to become her surrogate-surrogate sister she double never had. "Sora, what are we going to do? None of us can even get into the Digiworld now."

"I wish we could, Lei." Sighed Sora. "I just don't know."

            "So who's left?" asked Yolei. 


	3. Meet the New Kid

Chapter Three: Meet The New Kid 

"Cody! Wait up!" Screeched Max. He ran haphazardly down the hall, rushing to keep up with his newfound friend. The halls were crowded since a lot of kids were rushing to get first dibs on school lunch. He jumped up to get a better look. Cody was still a few feet and several people away. He ducked under a few arms and managed to catch up to Cody. The slight brown haired boy walked easily down the corridor, with no problem at all, unlike Max that had looked like he was trying to run a triathlon to get to him. "I finally caught up to you," he wheezed.

Cody grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I promised a friend I'd save us some seats."

"It's ok. Where is the cafeteria anyway?"

"Just a little farther." They reached a wall of multiple double doors. "Here we are." Cody led him inside, this time slower so Max would be able to keep up. He claimed a seat by the window and tossed his book bag down on it. Max seated himself on the other side.

"So, where's the lunch line?" asked Max. The other boy pointed to a line off to the side. "Uh, are you sure? The line looks kind of small."

"Most kids bring their lunches," said Cody. To demonstrate he pulled out his plastic container lunch and box of juice.

"That's weird. At home most of us bought lunch." Max scratched his head.

"Cody!" Max and Cody turned towards the voice. A girl around their age was running up to them. She had long brown hair with two green hairclips pinning them in twin ponytails and was dressed in blue flares with a green tank top. She waved at them. "Great! You got the window seat!" She eyed Max. "Hi! Max right?"

"Uh, yeah. You're in our class, right?"

"Yup. I sit behind Cody and you during homeroom. I'm Ikari Jinjo." she stuck out her hand. Max eyed the purple glitter nail polish before shaking it.

"Uh, I'm Max Fernando...er, Fernando Max. Whatever." Jinjo grinned at him.

"Where were you anyway?" asked Cody. "You were late to homeroom."

"Oh, well, I had a gymnastics team practice before school and the girls' locker room door was stuck." explained Jinjo.

Cody grinned at Max. "Jinjo's on a dozen different teams."

"I must concur, not a dozen," corrected Jinjo. "That's an exaggeration."

"Sure Jinny, sure." teased Cody.

"Hey! Only Sefie can call me Jinny," protested Jinjo. "I will definitely not tolerate it from you!" she stuck her tongue out at him.

Max inched back from the pair. "Uh, I'm going to get lunch now." he stood up but hesitated. "Uh, just tell me which one of these weird coins is 100 yen." he pulled out a few coins from his pocket.

"Don't worry about it Max," said Jinjo. "My treat, you being the new kid and all. I already got our lunch." She pulled out a plastic bag from her book bag. "I got here early and nabbed the best ones." she tossed a tuna sandwich at Max. He caught it, after it rebounded off his nose. "Chocolate or white?" she held up two milk boxes.

"Chocolate." Jinjo tossed it at him too, but this time he was ready and caught it.

The three dug into their lunches with Jinjo and Cody trading off stories of their weekend. 

"So Sefie climbs up on the couch, hangs her father's sock on her ears and her brother's sock on her nose and yells 'Lookie I'm an elephant!' but she ended up collapsing from the smell." Jinjo screwed up her face. "Ieew, she forgot to check if they were clean before playing with them."

"Yuck, I feel bad for Sefie." laughed Max. "Whoever she is."

"She's a kid I sometimes baby-sit for." explained Jinjo. "Cody too, though not as much."

"Travis is the one who usually looks after her," said Cody. "He's this 8th grader we hang around with a lot. He's more or less Sefie's surrogate big brother. He's really nice; really cares for the poor kid."

"Her real brother's a yucky stinky head." scowled Jinjo. "He's a pesky dork who thinks he all that because he's in college. Baka."

"Yucky stinky head?" echoed Cody. Jinjo shrugged.

"So what did you do this weekend Cody?" asked Max.

Jinjo answered before Cody could. "He disappeared off the face of this planet and hung out with his older cooler friends."

"No I-" Cody frowned. "So what if I did?"

"You're always disappearing with them. What the heck do you do with them?" teased Jinjo.

"Nothing illegal, I assure you," said Cody. "She's talking about the kids I was walking with this morning. I've known them for a long time, that's all. Don't think that I think they're cooler than you Jinjo."

"Oh I think they're cooler, but I wont take it personally," grinned Jinjo. 

A sudden beeping interrupted the camaraderie. Cody slapped at his belt and looked at a hand held device. It looked like a walkie-talkie, with a small digital screen, stubby antenna, and yellow handgrips. A message flashed across the screen that Jinjo and Max couldn't see." My...uh, beeper." Cody stood up. "I'll be right back. I have to make a phone call." he rushed towards the exit of the cafeteria.

"He's always doing that. Rushing off like that." said Jinjo with a sigh.

"You mean like superman?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a double life." Jinjo tipped her milk carton on the table. Not a drop was left. "So Max, you just moved here?"

"Yeah."

"Do you like it here?"

Max shrugged. "I don't know. I guess. I don't know. I've only been here two days." He made a face. "I can barely speak Japanese. I'm lucky though. Our teacher felt sorry for me and she's letting me do part of my homework in English."

"That's cool." nodded Jinjo. I know how you feel. I'm a navy brat."

Max scowled at her. "You don't look like a brat to me."

Jinjo sweat dropped. "Uh, I meant that I move around a lot."

"I knew that."

"Of course you did." Patronized Jinjo. "Anyway, my mom and dad are in the military."

"What do they do?"

"Err," Jinjo rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, I...actually, to tell you the truth, I don't really know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" demanded Max. "They're your parents. You have to know."

"Not exactly," said Jinjo. "See, what they do is kinda top secret. They can't really tell me too much, and I can't tell anyone too much. All I know is that they're with some obscure government agency and a lot of it is hush hush. Oh, I also know they're pilots."

"Of what?"

"I don't know," said Jinjo. "It's really annoying, not knowing you know?" She shook her head. "Where was my point? Oh yeah. Cuz they're all-important and stuff, we have to move around a lot. I was born in Tokyo but when I was 4, I think, we moved to Germany. Then when I was six we went to America. After that we moved to Australia for a year then China. Then I think we ended up back in Tokyo but we got transferred here to Odaiba."

"Wow, that's a lot."

"Yeah, tell me about it." said Jinjo. 

"So, you know English, Japanese, Chinese, and German?" 

"Yup. So each time I went to a different school under a different language, I went nuts trying to learn it."

"That's really cool," said Max in awe. Somehow, his situation didn't seem as bad, but Jinjo seemed to be okay with it.

"Where did you say you moved from?" asked Jinjo.

"Uh, from the Kanto Islands."

Jinjo's eyes went wide and she coughed up some milk. "What? But that's government restricted."

"A little."

"That sure beats Germany and America," muttered Jinjo. She leaned forward eagerly. "Hey Max, tell me something, why is it restricted?"

Max frowned. "Uh, well...Lets just say we have a lot of different...' He racked his brain for one of the fancy terms his sisters threw about when explaining the Pokémon islands. "Exotic species of animals."

"Oh, so they're minimizing contamination?" asked Jinjo.

"Er, yeah." Too many big words.

"What kind of animals?" asked Jinjo.

Max scratched his head and remembered the lecture Monahan gave him before boarding the plane to Japan. He wasn't really supposed to say anything. "Oh, uh...

Luckily, Cody returned to the table. "Sorry about that."

"Don't tell me," said Jinjo, mocking seriousness. "Another crisis."

"You could say that." Cody fidgeted, knowing full well he wouldn't be able to tell his friends the truth.

            "Did I ever mention that I hate gym?" asked Max.

"Several times." Confirmed Jinjo. She Cody and Max were following their class out onto the athletic field to play soccer, much to Max's dismay. It's not like he wasn't good at it, which he so forcefully proclaimed, but he just wasn't his thing.

            "What now?" asked Max.

Cody looked around. "We have to wait until the other classes get here."

            "Huh?"

            "The JH combines the elementary school classes with ours." Explained Jinjo. "It's supposed to give the little kids experience with kids of different ages, and us an opportunity to develop leadership skills and to learn to look out for each other, especially the younger ones."

            "Well put Jin." Laughed Cody. "Seriously, all they want to do is free up some time for elementary school teachers for coffee breaks. It's for." He made quote marks in the air. "The psychological wellness of the teachers."

            Jinjo huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Well, it's my theory, alright?"

            "Theories." Muttered Cody. "The only theories I'll listen to are Izzy's, at least they make sense."

            "Who's Izzy?" asked Max.

            "He was one of the kids I was walking with earlier. He has matted down red-brown hair, and was talking with the girl with the purple hair. He's a major computer nut. He's really cool. He's kind of my mentor in a way." Explained Cody.

 "Computers, huh?" Said Max. "My sis would love to hear that. She's a major computer freak."

            "Nuh uh." Said Jinjo. "Phreak, not freak. P. H. "

            "Does it Matter?"

            "Yes!" yelled Jinjo. "Say it with some respect!"

            Cody sweat dropped. "Don't mind her."

            Jinjo was about to retort when Max pointed over their shoulders. "Hey, here come the littler kids."

            A party of eight year olds paraded out lined up in size order. One of them, a short girl with flipped out black hair, and a yellow jumper waved to them excitedly. "That's Sefie." Explained Cody. "Another one of our little school hangout group. She's an all right kid, a bit hyper and happy go lucky, but that's ok."

            When it came to Jinjo's turn to select another teammate she made a big show of tapping her chin and considering all of the other kids, deliberately not looking at Sefie. She pouted and whined. "Jinnnnnyyyy…."

            The older girl laughed then beckoned at the girl with a flick of a wrist. "C'mon Sefie."

            "Yay!" cried Sefie. She skipped across the field with a giant grin on her face. "Super duper mega cool!" Sefie gave Jinjo a hug around her waist. "Hiee Jin-Jin!" She detached herself from Jinjo's waist and latched onto Cody's leg. "Cody! CodyCodyCodyCody!"

            Cody pried her off his leg and patted her head. "Hey Sefie."

            Sefie giggled then looked around. "Ooh," she said, her eyes locking on Max's. "Good witch or bad witch?"

            "Huh?"

            Cody leaned his elbow on Max's shoulder. "This is Max. He just transferred into our school from the Kanto islands."

            "The what islands?" 

"Forget it." Groaned Max. 

Sefie looked around. "Hey! Where's Travis?"

Jinjo shrugged. "I dunno. I don't think his class came out yet."

"Who's Travis?" asked Max. He was meeting a lot of people today.

"He's yet another one of our little group." Explained Jinjo. He's a 7th grader, so we don't get to seem him a lot during school except for Gym."

"He's my aniki!" piped Sefie.

"Your what?"

"You're flip, right?" asked Jinjo.

"Flip? What?"

"Filipino, right?"

"Yeah."

"Aniki's the same as your Kuya, except not blood related." Said Jinjo.

"Enough with the linguistics Jinjo." Said Cody. "He's over there." He pointed.

A tall 7th grader with dark blue hair was facing off some sixth grader for the soccer ball. He was wearing gray windbreaker pants and a dark red shirt with the capsule corp. logo stenciled on it. 

"Let's go!" Jinjo yanked Max and Cody's arms and dragged them towards Travis. "Travis!"

The boy turned around and waved. "Hey guys." Sefie pounced at him. "Oof, nice to see you too Sefie." He, Cody and Jinjo traded weird complicated high fives. He looked at Max. "Hey."

"Uh, hi."

"You're new, right? I'm Travis. "He held out his hand.

"I know." Max stared at the offered hand; he awkwardly mimed the funky high five. Jinjo smothered a laugh behind her hand.

Ms. Hooch, their gym teacher, blew her whistle, starting the game. Travis and Jinjo kept the ball zipping around the field while Max stayed by the goal, ready to make the winning kick, plus it was the safest place, next to the goalie position. Travis, Cody and Jinjo kept the ball in play so much those positions had no action. Sefie already had that one covered. Soccer wasn't his favorite sport. Maybe video game soccer…

            It was Sefie's turn in the field. "Lemmie get the ball Travis! I can get it in!" Travis glanced her and smiled.

            "Get ready kid. Let'er rip!" he yelled. He trusted her, as long as he wasn't in the ball's path. 

            "Yay! Super duper mega-" She let loose a wild power kick at the ball, sending it flying across the field. It was heading out of bounds when Cody intercepted it five feet in the air.

            "Hah!" Cody jump kicked the ball in a pure martial arts move at Travis, who had run down the field to help. "Yo Travis."

            "Got it!" Travis ran at top speed, flipped into the air and kicked the ball. "Jinjo!"

            "Yup!" Jinjo went to kick the ball into the goal when Sefie accidentally intercepted it and power kicked it again. It flew towards the goal. Sefie's eyes went wide. "Hey Max! Heads up!"

            "Huh?" Max looked up just in time to see the ball careening towards him. "Ack!" The ball hit his hard head. Luckily for the ball, his head was angled so that the ball flew past the other team's goalie and into the goal.

            "Yay yay!" yelled Jinjo. "You got it in! You did it Max! We won!" 

            Max held his head and tried to bat away the stars and birds flying around his head. "Uh. I did?" Darn birds…

            "Sure did, man," Grinned Travis. "Good work."      

"Uh, right." Said Max, shooing the last bird away. 

            "Thank goodness school's over." Said Cody. The two of them walked out of the school building. They had just finished their last class and were walking home. "I was going to burst if I heard another math equation."

            "Same here." Agreed Max. "Hey, we're meeting Travis, Sefie and Jinjo right?"

            "Yup." Said Cody. "Travis is picking up Sefie. See?" The two in question walked towards them. Actually, Travis was speeding at them on his skateboard while Sefie ran at his side. 

            "Cool." Suddenly, two hands grabbed at his head and covered his eyes. "Gwa!" he pulled at the hands, but they wouldn't budge. "Jinjo!" The hands released him and a sheepish looking Jinjo grinned at him.

            "Gee, how'd ya know?" 

            "You're the only one missing.".

            "Aw shucks." Said Jinjo, snapping her fingers.

            "Hey, so what's our plans?" asked Sefie. 

            "I dunno." Said Travis. He skidded his board to a stop. "I don't have band practice, so I'm free."

            "You're in a band?" asked Max.

            "Sure am!" said Travis. "I just help out Matt a bit whenever he has gigs and needs a third guitarist."

            "Just don't ask Travis to fix equipment." Stage whispered Jinjo. "He's got a bad rep for blowing them up."

            "Not all the time." Protested Travis. "I only do it cuz Matt's a cool guy. I'd rather be skateboarding. 

"Hey, wanna go to the arcade?" asked Jinjo. "I hear they have an arcade style PS3 hooked in. It looks real cool.""

            "Kewl!" yelled Sefie "Let's go."

            While walking, Jinjo tried to strike up conversation with the new kid. "So, Max, do you like video games?"

            "Do I ever!" Yelled Max. "Ever play Tetris attack?"

            "Yup. Mastered it in a day."

            "Me too! How about Banjo-Tooie?"

            "Yeah! Do ya play Mario tennis?"

            "Who doesn't? That game sooo rocks!"

            Travis, Sefie and Cody exchanged looks. "Here we go." Sighed Travis.

            The two got into a heated argument about which was better, Banjo-Tooie or Banjo-Kazooie when a voice interrupted them. "Cody!"

            "Huh?"

            A boy in his late teens with spiked red-brown hair approached them. "Prodigious, I thought I'd find you here."

            Cody mouthed a quick 'excuse me' to his friends then turned to the older boy. "What's going on Izzy?"

            "We have a…computer club meeting." Said Izzy. "We've got something important to talk about."

            "Trouble in the Digiworld?" whispered Cody. Izzy nodded. Cody turned back to his friends. "Sorry. Something important came up."

            "Can we come?" asked Sefie, latching onto Izzy's leg. "Pweese?"

            "Sorry." Said Izzy, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Next time. Important stuff."

            "What kind of important stuff?" Sefie planted her hands on her hips and pouted.

            "We are gathering to come to an agreement over an extremely important subject Matter in which an immediate decision must be made." Sefie blinked up at him.

            "Huh?"

            "We gotta talk 'bout important stuff that's gotta be settled ASAP."

            "Oh."

            Cody laughed. "Well, we have to go now, so I'll see you guys tomorrow, kay?"

            "Yeah." They chorused.

            Cody waved one last time before following Izzy.

"That's Izzy?" asked Max.

            "Yup." Said Travis. "Legendary. He and his friends are known throughout the neighborhood for their antics. Uh, well-known to the kids who actually pay attention."

            "Meaning us three." Said Jinjo. "Ever since, I think, six years ago, a lot of weird stuff has happened. Like monsters taking over."

            "And mind controlling us." Said Travis. 

            "And don't forget the weird sky." Said Sefie. 

            "And the nuclear bomb threat." Added Jinjo.

            Only one thing caught Max's attention. "Monsters?"

            The three nodded. "Big ones," said Travis. "Not like Godzilla or whatever, but still freaky."

            "Figure the kind you see in Final Fantasy." Said Jinjo. 

            "My sister loves that game." Said Max. Inside, his mind was yelling _"Pokémon, Pokémon, Pokémon… Maybe it is possible."  Aloud he said. "Do you know what they were called?"_

            "Not a clue." Said Sefie. "I asked Cody once, but he got real quiet. I bet he knows something we don't."

            "Yup," said Travis, pulling back to the previous subject. "Whenever one of those monsters are around, Cody and his friends were always there. Before it used to be Cody's older friends, but he didn't know them yet. Now it's Cody and his younger friends." He scratched his head. "Uh, did that make sense?"

"Whoa," Muttered Max. He suddenly their walking had taken him to his apartment building. "Whoops. There's my apartment. See you guys later." He bounded up the steps of the building.

Max wandered into his room and threw his bag onto his bed. Like he was really going to do his homework that early, hah! He lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. If he were back in Kanto, he'd be training his Pokémon right about now. He wouldn't have nay homework either. He'd be hanging out with a few trainers or helping out at the labs with professor Hart. That was always a lot of fun. Max sighed. But he was stuck here, in Tokyo. Sure it was nice, he had made a bunch of new friends and he was picking up Japanese pretty quickly, sort of. It wasn't the same. And about what Travis, Jinjo and Sefie said about some kind of monsters. What were then? Were they real? Were they, gasp, Pokémon. Was there a chance of actually brining his Pokémon here? If they did it, so could he-

"Max…" called his mom.

"I know. I'm doing my homework!" yelled Max back. Pondering had to wait. He'd probably give Professor Monahan a call later. No, his dad found out about his little long distance call and prohibited him from making any more for a week. Maybe he'd ask his sister when she got home. He leapt off his bed and cracked open his books. "Agree or disagree…Yuck! Oh c'mon!"


	4. N7r0py Rulz

Chapter Four: N7r0py Rulz 

"So what's going on, Iz?" asked Cody, unable to take the suspense any longer. The older boy had been silent the whole car trip there. Maybe it was partially because Izzy was a really cautious driver, and diverted much of his attention to the road, but he was never this quiet.

"We have ourselves a little problem." Said Izzy tactfully.

"How little?"

"Big little." Cody gave him a look. "It's prodigious, and I don't mean it in my usual 'cool' sense. I'm talking mondo big problem."

"Evil Digimon?"

"Not this time." Izzy filled Cody in on the data-shifting episode they had during lunch.

"How are we going to stop the whatever it is from jumbling all of the data?" asked Cody.

"That's what we're meeting to figure out," said Izzy. He pulled his yellow Volkswagen beetle into the Elementary School's parking lot. "Come on. The rest of the guys are waiting."

Cody jogged alongside Izzy as they made their way through the hallways. "None of us can get into the Digiworld now?" 

"None. The whatever-it-is is making the portal reject all program files relating to anything Digidestined, 01s and 02s alike. We're making Willis, Joe, and Mimi try their luck as we speak." He opened the door to the computer clubroom. All of the Digidestined were crowded around a few computer consoles. One was hooked into the vidphone. The screen was split showing Willis and Mimi. Willis frowned as he looked at his Digivice. 

"I started up the program like you told me to, Lei, It's not working. I even tried wiring into the hardware."

            Mimi rattled the Digivice as if expecting a loose part to clank around. "Mine won't work either. It glowed a bit, then it fizzled out."

            "Hey, it worked better than ours." Said Kari. "That happened to Tai, Sora, Matt and Izzy's."

"Confirming our theory." Said Izzy as his way of announcing his presence.

            "Hey guys." Greeted Cody. "Izzy filled me in. Any luck yet?" 

            "Well," said Yolei, passing a print out of computer code gibberish to Izzy. "We found out that the virus tends to favor the 01 Digivices than the 02 versions. Since they have been out of use for a while, they must have been spared some immunity. Just a little." 

            "Taking it logically," said Cody. "I would assume the virus attacked all the recent history files, the 02s being the most used ones of them all. You guys haven't been into the Digiworld for a while, so I guess it didn't have too much of an attack on you."

            "But enough to keep us out." said Sora. 

            "What if we got new ones," suggested Mimi. "Get new Digivices, and write up a new portal program."

            "It's not that easy, Mimi." Sighed Izzy. "There's only one set of Digivices per Digidestined generation." He gestured to each group. "Thus the reason why we call ourselves the 01 Digidestined, and you guys the 02 generation."

            "So in short," said Tai. "We need new Digivices to defeat whatever this thing is."

            "Or new Digidestined altogether." Added Davis.

            "Can we contact Gennai?" asked Matt. "Glowing floating guy always has an answer."

            "Whether it makes sense or not is the question." Groaned Mimi. "He didn't even remember Kari's name."

"Let's give it a shot." Said Izzy. He plundered down at a terminal and accessed the Internet. "Let's just hope he's on the IMer." He sent out a message to Gennai."

"But isn't he in the Digiworld?" asked Cody. "If the enemy is messing up the Digiworld, wouldn't he be affected as well?

"I'll search the 'net for something." Said Yolei, sitting at the computer next to him.

"Stuff about Digimon on the internet?" said Mimi. "C'mon."

"There's plenty of stuff on the web. You never know, right?" countered Yolei. "I'm cross referencing Digimon and news. There's usually some kind of prophecy that predicts this stuff, and new Digidestined kids would be showing up whether they know it or not."

"I'll help you out, Lei." Said Cody. 

 An hour later, Izzy leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms. "I can't find Gennai anywhere. It's like he's disappeared."

"What if he got infected?" Said Sora softly. "Maybe that's why he hasn't responded." There was a deadening silence as the thought was processed. 

Tai tried smiling. "Hey, Gennai's pretty strong, well, uh, in spirit anyway. He'll survive. I bet he's too busy helping out the others and finding out a way to beat this to contact us. If he could anyway." 

Yolei nibbled at her pen. "Well, I came up with a few hocus pocus legends about the Digiworld on the boards. Most of them are just hacker thoughts, kind of like how people thought of the Matrix in the movie."

"No hard core facts about it though." Said Willis. "Just theories. Some of them are pretty close, minus the monsters part."

"D1g1t4lUn1v3r53 chat room, right?" said Yolei grinning. "Yeah, I go there sometimes just for laughs. Some of their theories are totally off. They think it's a continent to the west of Canada or something."

"I found something." Announced Izzy. "It's a back door to the Digiworld!"

"That's not one of the natural portals." Said Yolei. "There's only a few places where you can enter the Digiworld from here. Why is there one there?" 

"Someone must have hacked it." Said Cody. "How else would you explain it?"

"Gee, you can do that?" said Davis scratching his head. "This guy has gotta be smart. We better hope this guy's on our side."

"And not the creator of the virus." Continued Kari.

"Aaaahhhh!" cried out Yolei. She pointed at the screen franticly. "Look!" The screen swirled and turned black. A picture of a stereotyped black bowling-ball bomb flashed in the corner. /** You have tread upon my turf. LEAVE!! **/

"A hacker…" breathed Izzy. "Most likely the only who created the portal. He typed back. /** What do you know about the DW? **/

/**  Who r u?  **/

/**  We could say the same 2 u **/ typed Izzy back. /** This is our turf. **/ 

/**  Sez who?  **/

/**  Sez us.  **/

"Quit the hacker speak, Izzy." Scowled TK.

/**  How do I know ur not the 1 who's messing up the DW? **/ 

"This guy knows about the virus." Said Tai. "He or she's gotta be genuine."

/**  How do we know you didn't.  **/

/**  Point taken, r we going 2 do this interrogation thing all day, or what?  **/

/**  This is our turf. Stay away from the DW.  **/

A few seconds went by before the next response. /** You guys are the Digidestined, aren't you.  **/

"What?!" exclaimed Davis. "How'd? What? Uh…What?!"

"How'd this person know?" said Matt. 

/**  What makes you think that?  **/

/**  No one but the Digidestined have access to the Digiworld, I know that as a fact.  **/ There was a pause. /**  Well, besides me.  **/ 

"What are we going to say?" asked Izzy.

"The truth," said Sora. "I don't see why not. Obviously whoever this is knows a lot about the Digiworld and could help us."

Izzy turned back to the computer. /** Let's assume we are. How do we know we can trust you?"

The bomb icon in the corner flashed off and the screen returned to its previous state. /**  You guys have to be. I'm guessing the crest of knowledge is doing the hacking on this one, or perhaps the 02's love and sincerity chosen one. The logs have always shown their involvement in techie Matters.  **/

"Ask how much this person knows." Said Tai. "I want to know where we stand." 

/**  I know as much as Gennai recorded.  **/

Izzy rubbed his hands together. "We need to know more about this person." /**  How do you know so much?  **/

/**  I spend a lot of time online. I saw a challenge, I took it, I hacked in. simple as that.  **/

/**  So you know what's going on in the DW? **/

/**  I didn't create the virus, if that's what you mean. I swear. I'm trying to fix it as we speak. Can you get in with your D-vices and the portal? I'd go myself, but I'm no DD.  **/

/**  Incompatible,  **/ replied Izzy. /** We need to find a way to retrieve new Digivices or find new Digidestined.  **/

/**  So you *are* the Digidestined.  **/ Came the retort. /**  Tell you what, I'll team up with you guys and help you. You'll need my help to get this new threat under wraps. You just have to let me in on the action, got it?  **/

/**  Can we trust you?  **/

/**  You can call me Ntropy. I'm sending you the addy to my pager. You can contact me there. Is that enough?  **/

Izzy saved the address and scribbled it onto a notepad. "Has to be one of the good guys." Said Cody. "To trust someone enough to give away their handle and addy is no small Matter. To strangers no less."

"So what do you say guys?" said Tai. "We need an informant on this one. With Gennai gone, we have no way of keeping tabs on the Digiworld.

"Do we have a choice?" said Kari.

"Not really." Said TK. "It's our best shot."

"Agreed." Said Izzy. /**  OK we're in.  **/

/**  What's the first order of business?  **/

"I say we find out if we need Digivices or Digidestined." Said Davis. 

"Got it." Izzy typed it in.

/**  Understood. I'll get back to you guys. Stay frosty.  **/ The chat box disappeared.


	5. Generation Gap

Chapter Five: Generation Gap 

Sefie tapped her foot impatiently. "Where's Max?"  

"Maybe he got lost on the way down here." Suggested Travis. Jinjo whacked him upside the head.

"He may be a little new here, but he's not _that_ lost." Travis rubbed the back of his neck.

"Chill guys," said Cody. He and his friends were waiting by Max's apartment building corner. He yawned. All of the Digidestined were up late last night working with the mysterious Ntropy. Cody jerked his head towards the doors. "Here he comes."

Sure enough, a rumpled looking Max came barreling though the doors. He looked more than a little sleepy and held a plastic Dunkin' Doughnuts mug in his hand. "Sorry I'm late."

"S'all okeeday!" chirped Sefie. "How ya doin' Mackie boy?!"

Max paled. "Wha- what did you call me?"

Sefie giggled. I heard your sister call you that when I called you up last night."

_"I'm-gonna-kill-ate- I'm-gonna-kill-ate- I'm-gonna-kill-ate-_ _I'm-gonna-kill-ate…"_ Thought Max, heatedly. 

The four of them started walking.

"Pop quiz Max." Said Jinjo. She flicked her light brown hair over her shoulder and played with her hairpins. "Which way is it to school?" Max frowned and pointed. Jinjo wagged a finger at him. "Uh uh. Try again." He pointed in the opposite direction. "Ding ding ding! Second try!" Max groaned and hit his forehead with his hand.

"Ooh! Lookie lookie lookie!" yelled Sefie. She jumped excitedly. "Lookie! There's Izzy and Sora and Tai and Yolei an' ev'rybody!" She pointed to a mob of blue and green and started skipping towards them.

Jinjo, Cody and Travis sighed. Cody and Jinjo ran after the hyperactive 8-year old. Travis shook his head. "Gotta lower her sugar intake. Let's go!" He yanked on Max's book bag strap and ran after them.

"Hi hi hi Tai Tai Tai!" cried Sefie as she leapt into Tai's arms. It was fortunate for both of them that Tai didn't fall. Well, he crashed into Matt a little, but as long as they didn't fall, it was all right. "Tai! How are ya doin'! I haven't seen you in the looooooongest!"

Tai grinned. "Hey ya Sefie."

"She's quite the morning person." Observed Izzy.

"Kooshie!!!!" squealed Sefie. She jumped off of Tai and hugged Izzy's waist.

A huge sweat drop overtook Izzy's head. "Don't call me that."

"But that's your name, Kooshie!" said Sefie. Izzy only sighed.

"Kooshie?" said Max. "Huh?"

            Cody took pity on Max and introduced them. "I guess you haven't been properly introduced. Max, this is Izzy. Izzy, this is Max."

            Izzy pried an arm away from Sefie and clasped Max's hand. "Nice to meet you."

            "So where did 'Kooshie' come from."

            "From my first name, Koushiro," explained Izzy.

            "But I thought your name's Izzy."

            "Izzy's from my last name, Izumi." Izzy shook his head. "Forget it. Just call me Izzy."

            "Uh, right."

            Cody continued. "That's Tai and Sora. She's pretty, but don't lay a hand on her, she's Tai's girl." Both of them sent looks at Cody. "Uh, and a very pretty lady I might add…and a terrific soccer and tennis player." 

"What's up?" greeted Tai. Jinjo elbowed Max.

            "He's one of the older friends who's involved with the monsters. He's kinda their leader. Sora's one of them too." Max nodded with interest.

            "The tall dude with the cool blond hair is Matt. We told you about him too." Said Travis. Max shook his head. Not remembering. "You know, band Matt. Guy who's out to kill me if I blow another amp…" Travis trailed off as he noticed Matt giving him the evil eye. "Uh, buddy, you're still not angry…uh are you?" Matt approached him with a menacing look. Travis ducked behind Max, hoping Matt wouldn't hurt him if there were someone in the crossfire. Matt raised his fists as if to sock him. Travis squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the hit.  When he opened them up again, he saw Matt grinning and holding out a hand. 

            "We're friends, don't worry about it." Travis sighed in relief and accepted the hand. "Just keep away from the amps and stick to your guitar and you'll be safe…for now." Travis gulped loudly.

            "Uh, yeah." Said Cody.  "The collage guy-" Joe coughed loudly. "The Collage guy," repeated Cody, ignoring the look Joe was giving him. "Is Joe. He's gonna be a doctor, so don't mess with him or his girlfriend, Mimi. He might use you for a lab, despite the Hippocratic oath, if you're not careful. You're pretty safe from Mimi, she's in America."

"Mimi, Matt and Joe are some of the older monster prone ones," added Travis in a whisper.

"See the one's with their noses in global books? They're TK, Kari and Davis. They're just starting high school and are really busy with classes. TK's Matt's younger brother, Kari is Tai's younger sister, and Davis, is, well, Davis."

"Hi Max." Kari smiled at him. TK looked up and nodded in greeting.

"That's Yolei. She's not as hyperactive as Sefie, but we love her anyway." Said Cody.

            "Perfecto!" grinned Yolei.

            "Izzy loves Yolei but Yolei loves everyone," Laughed Travis. Izzy almost whacked him with his pineapple computer. "Uh, especially Izzy." Izzy nodded. 

"That's better."

"They're the younger ones that got caught up with all the monster stuff." Said Sefie. "I'm not sure who the leader is."

"It's nice to meet all of you." Said Max.

"Well," said Tai. "We gotta bounce." He looked at his watch. "We only have a few minutes before the bell rings. They all started to walk away. "See ya Cody. Bye guys."

"Ja ne!" chirped Sefie.

"Oh yeah!" Davis looked back. "Cody! The D2s are meeting at lunch. Think you can ditch French tutoring?" 

"Yeah, sure. See you there, but it's your fault if I flunk the next test."

"We can take that chance." Grinned Davis. "Je suis aller au lupin. It est tres cher! Am I da bomb or what?"

"You just said you were going to the wolf and it is very expensive." Said TK.

"Shut up TR." TK rolled his eyes. "Later Cody." They turned away.

"What was that all about?" asked Jinjo. 

Cody shrugged. "Nothing."

"It's gotta be something, or else it wouldn't be anything." Said Sefie. Cody paused, before responding. Sefie could get a little confusing sometimes.

"Just hanging out." replied Cody.

"What are D2s?" asked Travis. "I heard you guys use that term a few times."

Cody paused even longer. They really did need new code words. "Uh, it means, uh, It's the name of the CD Davis wants me to bring. We all love the group. They got the coolest songs…heh heh." Cody rubbed the back of his sweat-dropping head.

Travis, Max, Jinjo, and Sefie gave him disbelieving looks. "Riiiggghhttt." Drawled out Travis.


	6. The Search Continues

Chapter Six: The Search Continues 

"So the inverse of a matrix is 0101?" 

Yolei kept her eyes glued to her notebook. "Uh huh."

Matt frowned. "I still don't get it." He threw his pencil down in disgust. I'll never get this stuff."

"Just accept it, and get on with your life." Advised Yolei. "It's a lot easier." She, Matt, Tai, Izzy, TK, Davis and Sora were stuck in the library, doing study hall time.

Thunk…thunk…thunk…thunk…

"Davis, you know knocking yourself unconscious will not help the situation." Said Izzy over his shoulder.

Davis stopped hitting his head on the table and frowned at the older boy. "Yeah, I know. I just felt like I needed to do something productive."

"And how is bruising up your head productive?" asked Kari. "You're just proving you're a masochist."

"What's that?" asked Davis.

TK sighed and handed the boy a dictionary. "Look it up."

"Any word from Ntropy yet?" asked Kari. 

Izzy checked his laptop and his Digivice. "Not yet. Ntropy said he'd or she'd contact us around now."

Suddenly, a brown headed figure dashed into the library and ducked behind the table the Digidestined occupied. Cody gasped for breath. "I got here as fast as I could. Security's getting tighter nowadays."

"Glad you could make it Cody." Grinned Kari. "She tried pulling him to his feet. "C'mon take a seat."

"I'll get caught!"

TK stripped off his sports jacket and handed it to Cody. "Put this on, you'll look less suspicious." The younger boy took it gratefully. "Hey, at least you look like a really young freshman."

"Funny." Scowled Cody. "So where's-" suddenly, all of their Digivices beeped. 

/**  Sorry it took so long. I got some information might want to see."

/**  Bring it on!  **/ Tapped out Yolei on her D-Terminal. They had networked their terminals so they could all talk to Ntropy at one time.

/**  Bad news first. I found out that there's absolutely no way to get you guys new Digivices. Plus, there's nothing in the prophecy files of a new generation of Digidestined prophesized to be activate.  **/ More than half of them groaned in despair. /**  Have no fear, I is here!  One thing you gotta understand, is that Digidestined generations aren't integers. There may not be any generation due to be activate, but there is an in-between. **/

/**  If I may comment,  **/ said Davis. /**  Huh?  **/

/**  02 courage/friendship DD, right? LOL. Figures. There's a half step generation of Digidestined that can be activated if the regular Digidestined are rendered inactive. Rather than human trait crests, they are purely elemental.  **/

/**  As in the four elements?  **/ Asked Izzy.

/**  Five actually. Since we're talking Digiworld, there's earth, wind, fire, water, and electricity cuz everything related to computers runs on energy as its source of life.  **/

/**   How do we find these support Digidestined?  **/ Asked Cody.

/**  Good question.  **/ said Ntropy. /** I'm searching the digi-database for it right now. Knowledge, give me a hand, will you? 02 Love/sincerity? **/

/**  Aye aye!  **/ Replied Yolei.

/**  It might take a while, but we'll find them.  **/ Said Ntropy.

/**  Why's it taking so long?  **/ asked Tai curiously. 

/**  There are too many variables.  **/ Explained Izzy. /** A Digidestined most likely encounters their Digimon at least once in their past. They also have a tendency towards having some unusual talent or quality, like your leadership, my knowledge. We're also assuming that they live in Japan. We're linked up to the Japan Internet and searching though the personnel databases.  **/

/**  Kudos, Knowledge.  **/

/**  Is this going to give us names?  **/ Asked Sora.

/** Affirmative. **/

/**  Do you know ours?  **/ Asked Matt.

There was a long pause. /**  I'm working on that part.  **/

/**  You going to tell us yours?  **/ Said Matt.

/**  I ain't stupid.  **/

The bell for the next period rang, startling all of them. /**  We have to go, keep us updated.  **/ Typed Izzy quickly.

/**  Will do.  **/ Ntropy logged off.

"Ahh!" cried out Cody. He dashed out of the library. "Sorry guys. I gotta get back! See ya." 

"Hey, he still has my jacket." Exclaimed TK. Kari snickered. 

"Oh let him have it." She took his arm and dragged him and Davis out of the library. "Come on guys. We have global." 

The group of teenagers made their way out of the library and into the crowded hallways. Little did they know, Ntropy was eyeing them suspiciously. A grin spread on Ntropy's face, satisfied the legendary Digidestined had been found. Or at least, gave Ntropy an idea who they were. There was time to ponder over the new revelation later. Right now, there was class to attend. A black messenger bag was swept of the floor and slung over green uniformed shoulders. A sigh followed suit.

A very worn out looking Cody dodged into his math class just in time to be counted for attendance. "Whew."

Jinjo and Max darted to him. "Hey, where did you go?" asked Jinjo. "You weren't at French tutoring."

Cody wiped his sweaty forehead. "I had to go somewhere important?"

"Ooh, Cody cut class." Teased Max. Cody clapped his hand over Max's mouth. 

"Shh! Not so loud!"

"Well, it's kinda obvious." Said Jinjo. She tugged at the green sports jacket he still wore. "If I'm not mistaken, this is an Odaiba High school uniform jacket. One that most of your friends wear."

Cody looked at himself, startled. "! I forgot!" he yanked off the jacket. "TK's gonna kill me!"

"What was so important?" said Max. 

"Well," Cody debated with himself. He was tired of covering up everything, especially to some of his closest friends. "To keep it simple, my friends and I are looking for…a long lost relative of someone's. It's really important because…well, the relative has something we need…it's supposed to get someone out trouble. We need to find that person ASAP. "

"Oh," said Jinjo. "I understand. Do you need any help? We're always willing to help ya out Cody." Max nodded his agreement.

"It's alright." Said Cody. "We have it under control. Sorta. We have an…informant…to help us out."

"Informant?" said Max. "Sounds fancy."

"Yeah, well…" Cody drifted off. It was the truth, a little bent at the edges, but it was still the truth. 

Matt yawned, submitting to the lethargic atmosphere of his history class. His professor was droning on and on about some war in the early 18th century. He wasn't sure where, or when, just that it was boring him out of his mind. He switched on his D-Terminal, hoping someone was online. There was: Ntropy.

/**  Any luck?  **/ he asked. /**  This is 01DDfriendship.  **/

/**  Yes, I know… **/ There seemed to be some hesitation in the response, or was it lag? /**  Are you Matt.  **/

Matt nearly choked. The professor rapped on his desk. "Mister Ishida. Are you all right?"

"Uh, yes sir. Sorry sir." Said Matt quickly. Ntropy glanced in his direction and smirked. 

/**  I take that a yes.   **/

Matt made sure the teacher wasn't looking and typed back. /**  You can see me?  **/

/**  Yes. I'm in your class. Quiet your tapping or the teacher'll hear you!  **/

Matt pecked quietly. /**  Where are you?  **/

/**  Like I said, I ain't stupid. I'm not saying. It's safer for me.  **/

Matt darted his eyes around the room. Everyone either was paying droopy attention to the teacher, or had their heads on their desks, catching a nap. None of them had computers. 

He set the textbook onto his lap and pretended to read.

 /**  You're making me paranoid, you know that?  **/

/**  Yes.  **/

A foot suddenly kicked his shin. He hissed and looked at his desk partner. A new transfer student, she was quick to learn the ways of the class and warned Matt whenever she could if the teacher was eying him for not paying attention. It happened more often than not. "The teacher's givin' you _the_ look." She whispered.

Matt looked up. Sure enough, the teacher was sparing him evil looks as he demonstrated something on the old worn out map pinned up on the wall. "Thanks Rita."

"Anytime." Matt looked back to his computer. Ntropy was already gone.

That night, after an hour or so of groaning over his homework, Max was done. Just when he was about to turn on his N64…

"Max! Dinner! Yelled his dad.

"Coming!" yelled Max. He ran out he door and almost crashed into his sister. Alexis was digging her fingers into her ears. 

"Does everyone gotta yell all the time?" 

He and Alexis set the table. Max did his usual complaining about Alexis forgetting his cup. Well, she never did know what to get him to drink anyway. 

His dad dug into his rice. "So how was school, Max?"

"Good."

"So how was school Alexis?"

"Cool."

"How was your spelling test, Max?" asked his mom.

"Pretty good. I got a 95."

"So that's a medium egg?"

"Yeah!" cried Max. Alexis just rolled her eyes.

At the end of dinner, the phone rang. Max and Alexis leapt from their seats to answer the phone. Max got to it first. "Hello? Who is this?"

"Erm, hi...Max? This is Yolei. You met me this morning."

Max grinned ear to ear. "Hi! Wow! I didn't think anyone besides Sefie would call me! This is cool."

"Uh…yeah. Um, sorry but, uh, is Rita there? She's your sister right? Um, I kinda need help about the math homework."

Max sweat dropped. "Yeah. Hold on." He took the receiver from his ear and held it out to his sister. "Ate, it's Yolei."

Alexis jumped and grabbed the phone. She stepped into the kitchen with it. "Hey Yolei, s'up? Oh the math? Yah, it's kind weird, right? Uh huh. Madie and Clyde…Radius 50 tree orchard, remember…uh huh…" a few minutes later she hung up the phone and sat back down to dinner.

"Math homework." She explained, and tried to finish her serving of beef with broccoli. 

"Ring ring ring."

Max grabbed the phone. "Hello? Who's this?"

"Hi Max, it's Izzy."

"Hi!" said Max, cheering up. "How are you doing?"

"Fine…er, I kind of called for a specific reason…heh, is Rita there? I need to discuss the math homework with her."

Max groaned. "Ugh, yeah. Hold on." He held it out to his sister. "It's Izzy."

"Oh cool." Grinned Ate. She took the phone again. "Hey Iz…uh huh…yeah…I got a formula too…Yeah. No! I didn't get that! What'cha do?…uh huh…hah! You forgot to…"

A few minutes later, she sat back down. "Math again."

The phone began to ring once more. Max got it. "Hello? Who's this?"

"Um, hi. It's me. Tai."

Max racked his brain, trying to remember. "Oh yeah big hair High school dude from this morning, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Max could almost hear the sweat drops forming on the older boy's head. "Say, is Rita there? I need to ask about the English homework." Max already had the receiver held out to Alexis before Tai finished his sentence. 

"It's Tai."

Alexis took the receiver. "Hey Tai…the English? Oh yeah. We have to write an essay about the morality of hop-frog's actions…yeah, kinda idiotic if you ask me…he just went too far…that's true…300 words…stop your moaning Taichi!"

She hung up a minute later. "He's from AP English," She explained.

"How do you know all these people?!" exclaimed Max.

"They're in my classes. And they all value my opinion," Grinned Alexis.

"All during dinner?" cried Max. He pouted. "And I thought they were calling for me. I know them too, ya know."

"Really. Oh…well, um…" Alexis tried to come up with an answer but instead plunked another slice of bread on Max's plate using the don't-ask method, trying to change the subject.

"Hey! I didn't ask for this!"

"So." 

Max fumed at her but ate the bread anyway. The phone rang once more. Max got it. "Homework center!"

"Uh, do I have the right number? I'm looking for Rita." Said Komal.

Max disgustedly handed the phone to Alexis. 


	7. Enter Support DD03

Chapter Seven: Enter Support DD03 

A handful of the Digidestined team were hanging out at the front steps of Tai's apartment building for their usual "study session". Only a few of them actually studied. Izzy was plugging away at his computer while Yolei sat by his elbow, doing her nails in a glittery shade of light purple. Tai was quizzing Sora about something or other, Matt was playing air bass, and TK and Davis were arguing over what TK's name was. Davis insisted TK's name was TA.

TK rolled his eyes. "Don't you think I'd know my own name?"

"Well you've never corrected me before," pointed out Davis.

"I have!" cried out TK. "So has everyone else!"

Davis whipped his head around to look at Kari. "Right his name is TA? And no one told me otherwise?"

Kari barely looked up. "Sorry, Davis, his name's TK and yes we have told you millions of times before."

 "Oh."

"Finally, resolution to this nuisance," muttered TK.

"What was that TJ?" demanded Davis. TK reddened and leapt to his feet.

"My name's TK for cryin' out loud! We've been friends for three years now and you still can't get my name? It's two freakin' letters! T! K! TK! TK! Got that? Get it right, you half-wit!" he yelled. All eyes were on him. More than one jaw dropped to the concrete. Never before had they seen TK erupt with such vehemence, abhorrence rancor, pugnacity and abolishment. 

"Take it easy TK," said Kari, forcing him to sit down. "He's never got it right in the past, and I don't see why he should now. You should be used to it by now, so why bother?" TK grumbled a little then engrossed himself in his chemistry book.

"Ya know," said Matt, neatly changing the subject. "I had a very interesting conversation with Ntropy 7th period."

"Serious?" asked Yolei. "Us too, but during math." She included Izzy.

"Ntropy's in your class too?" asked Matt. Yolei nodded. 

 "So Ntropy's either a Senior or a Junior," deduced Tai.

"Our mystery informant," laughed TK. "Is right under our nose and we haven't a clue who he, or she is."

A sudden ringing erupted into the air. The 02s slapped at their pockets or dug into backpacks in search for their D-Terminals. "It's Ntropy," announced Kari, stating the obvious.

"Quick! Log on!" yelped Yolei, reaching across Izzy's keyboard, getting totally in his face.

"Jeez, all right!" came Izzy's muffled cry. Sure enough, a chat box was open. A little smiley face was blinking.

"Hi!" a disguised digitalized voice piped out of the speakers. "Don't worry, it's just me. I got tired of typing," said Ntropy in way of apology, knowing it had scared the heck out of them. " 

"What's up Ntropy?" said Tai. "Any leads?"

"I got more than just a lead, I got it."

"Whaddaya mean ya got it?" demanded Davis. "Got it as in got it got it? Or you just got it." Got it? Well, I don't got it. Do you got it? I sure don't got it…Did anyone got it?" He scratched his head confusing himself.

"Er…I got it. Take it how you want it, but I got it." The screen flickered and a file got transferred onto Izzy's computer. "These are the digidestined."

"I don't believe it!" cheered Sora. "Great work!" Yolei and Kari grabbed each other's hands and jumped up and down excitedly.

"Turns out, they were closer than we thought," said Ntropy. A folder expanded on the screen. Its icon was decorated with a little swirly thingy that looked like a flame. "Support Digidestined, fire element," The file opened and a complete personal bio scrolled on screen as well as a photograph. It was of a girl around 11 with green clipped auburn hair that angled just below her shoulders. She wore blue flares and a green and blue tank top. "I believe you know her." 

"Se-ren-dip-ity," Izzy drawled. 

"That's Jinjo!" Tai whipped his head around to face his friends. "That's one of Cody's school friends!"

"Correct-o-mundo, Tai. Jinjo Ikari," chirped Ntropy.  The next file glowed. Its front was decorated with a chunky looking thing that looked like a rock. Sort of. "Next one's obvious." The file opened and a bio and picture of Cody appeared. "Cody Hida. Support/02 Digidestined of the Earth Element." 

"Figures," said TK. "There's always someone from the previous team."

"Third SupportDD, is…" Ntropy keyed up an electric drum roll along with the file. This time it was a picture of a 12 year old with hair so dark it was blue and light blue eyes.  "Travis McKinnon, Element wind."

"What!" chorused Tai and Matt. "Oh man oh man oh man…" muttered Tai. "I knew that kid was something, but not this kind of something."

"Fourth one is none other than," A picture opened, revealing an 6 year old with black hair that flipped out at her shoulders. She wore a cute little yellow jumper with a big red bow at the back of her head. "Sefie Sakura Dincht."

"Little Sefie?" said Izzy in amazement. 

"See it and believe it," said Ntropy. "The kid has the Water element."

"Who's the fifth?" asked Kari. "I'm dying to know."

"Now you know how we felt," said TK recalling the trials they had to face in finding the 8th child.

"That's the problem," said Ntropy. "For some reason I couldn't find the last one."

"Perhaps he or she isn't in the Japan database?" said Izzy.

"Explain."

"Maybe the next child is in the US, just like Willis was." 

"True that," muttered Ntropy. "It's worth a shot. I'll look it up."

"Funny," said Yolei. "All of Cody's friends are the Digidestined. Maybe he hangs out with someone else. Could be the other Digidestined."

"Who else does he hang out with?" asked Sora. "I only know those three."

"No wait," said Izzy frowning. "I saw him with the new transfer student. I forgot his name."

            A little gagging sound came from Ntropy's end of the link. "Ntropy! Are you all right?" said Sora in alarm. 

There was a little more gagging before Ntropy croaked out an answer. The digitalizing made it sound even weirder. It was more like a drowning cat who was trying to speak Spanish with a French accent while playing the kazoo...badly  "Uh, nothing. I'm just a little surprised at who the next Digidestined is. I…kinda…know him…Uh, yeah…uh…"

"Well," said Yolei planting her fists on her hips. "Who is it?'

The filed popped onto the screen. A kid with spiky brown hair appeared on the bio. He was around 11 with a kind of glazed expression on his face. "Maxim Fernando, Electric element."

"I knew it!" proclaimed Davis. "I knew it!"

They could hear faint murmurings of disbelief from Ntropy. "I don't believe it. I can't. It's not…why him? Dude…"

"Are you all right?" questioned Izzy. "Ntropy?"

"Yeah, yeah. You better get going and contact the new support DD. Round 'em up and I'll have the portal program ready for them. I'll contact you the same time tomorrow." The screen blinked out.


	8. Digiwhat?

Chapter Eight: Digi-What? 

"Higher Max! Higher!" squealed Sefie. She gripped the chains of the swing. Max stood behind her, pushing her. "Maaaaax!!!"

"All right all ready!" yelled Max. He shoved her a little harder.

"Weeeeeeee!!" 

"Not too high, Sefie," cautioned Jinjo. She hung by her knees from one of the nearby jungle gym bars. 

"I know!" cried Sefie. She pumped her legs even harder. 

"I'm surprised you came along Cody," said Max. He looked over his shoulder at Cody. The other boy was practicing with his Kendo sword.

."Hey, I may be busy, but I'll always find time to hang out. Plus," he shrugged. "They didn't seem like they needed me. They haven't really lately." He shook his head sadly. "They're off in high school land."

"Aw, cheer up buddy," said Travis. He skated towards a nearby bench, grinded and landed near them. He always had his skateboard. "You'll always have us."

"Thanks."

"Hey," said Jinjo, swinging up to do a handstand, then flipping around to sit on the bar. "Did you ever find that long lost relative?"

"Not yet, far as I know," said Cody.

Max's mind drifted a little, thinking about his Pokémon. _I wonder what Pichu's doing right now…Probably bugging Caterpie for some of his extra ketchup packets. Chikorita and Totodile are probably having a water fight or something…Man, I miss them. Pichu…" _Max sniffled a little, remembering all of them. How he longed for the open road again, to travel and train his Pokémon to their best. To compete in another gym battle was something he dreamed of. Even to take one of those stupid trainer tests again seemed appealing. _A Jigglypuff seen from above_. He snorted at the idiotic question. _I wonder if I can go visit during spring break._

THWAK

Sefie's foot met with Max's head. "Sowwwiee!" Max shot a look at Sefie as she pumped higher into the air. He swatted at the stars and birds that he was getting to know oh so well. Stupid birds…

"That's the second time you've nailed me on the head, Sefie!" exclaimed Max.

"I don't mean to," said Sefie pouting. "Sowwiee!!" she suddenly looked at the entrance of the park. "Hey, isn't that…kinda everyone?" she squinted. "I see Taiyoshoes an' Sooda an' Yummy yummy yumato, an' Teek an' Davy an' Kari-Kari an' Kooshiekooshi zumi an' Lei-Lei…Oh wooooowww!" she exclaimed. Sefie slowed down her swing, leapt off, and ran to meet them.

"Does she have a name for everyone?" asked Max.

"Sadly," said Travis. "Don't worry, she'll get to you sooner or later."

"Guys?" said Cody in surprise. 

Sefie leapt into the first person's arms. "Sooda!" she squealed.

Sora reeled back from impact. "Hey Sefie." She twirled the little girl in the air. 

"Yeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

"What's up guys?" said Cody urgently. "What's going on?

Tai grinned, "We found them."

Cody's eyes widened. "Really? Did you contact them yet?"

"Nope," Davis shook his head. "C'mon. We're in for some heavy-duty Digidestined-ing." Cody froze at the mention of the D word in front of his friends. 

"Uh, yeah, we'd better leave," said Cody quickly, hoping his friends wouldn't say anything. "Uh, I'll see you guys later, ok?"

"Hey!" protested Max. "Why can't we go?" Jinjo elbowed him. "What?" 

Sefie planted her fists on her hips, "Why can't we go?" she echoed. "It's n'fair Cody! Why can't we hang out with you too? You're leavin' us out a lot, and that's n'fair!"

Cody seemed torn. "I'm really sorry Sefie but-

 "Well, I don't see why not," said Sora. Cody's eyes bugged. "They can come along if they want. They just might learn a thing or two." She winked at the kids. 

"Yay!" Sefie jumped up and down like a mad pogo stick. "Super-duper-mega-awesome!"

"But- but- but-" stammered Cody. Yolei slapped his shoulder, knocking the wind out of him. 

"Lighten up Cody," she laughed. "Let's go." She hooked her arm around his shoulders and steered him towards the school.

Kari beckoned the younger kids to follow. "C'mon."

Travis, Jinjo and Max looked at each other as they trailed slightly behind them. "What's going on?" asked Jinjo." Cody's never brought us with them before."

"And did you see the look on his face?" laughed Travis. 

"What the heck's he hiding?" asked Max. 

"Something tells me we're about to find out," said Jinjo.

"Wonderful deduction, Sherlock," muttered Travis. He was promptly bopped on the head.

They followed the group all the way to the elementary school and up to the computer club. Izzy and Yolei took their customary seats at the computer terminals while the rest of them hovered behind them. Cody squirmed while Max Jinjo, Travis and Sefie stuck together as a group, watching. 

"We're going to need to confirm their authenticity," said Sora. 

"Right," said Davis. "Wouldn't want them being rejected out of the system like a bad sock."

"Or like you asking a girl out." snickered TK.

"Funny, real funny."

"Uh, s'cuse me?" asked Travis. "Anyone wanna fill us in?" Cody blanched.

"Uh…"

"In a minute," said Matt. "What about the Digimon?"

"If you are referring to whether we have identified them, if they have any in the first place, no, we haven't learned anything yet."

"Wait a minute here," said Max. "Digimon. Are you talking about, you know, little monsters?" _Pokémon! Pokémon! Its gotta be Pokémon!"_

"In the movies!" blurted out Cody quickly.

"Those monster dudes that kept invading the city!" cried out Sefie. "No one believed me! One of them came into my art room and ate all the crayons! Everyone thought it was the boogie man, or me, but I didn't do it!" she frowned. "Well, I ate one of 'em but it was only one cuz I thought it was really blueberry flavored, and it kinda smelled like it but if didn't taste like it though….Yuck!" Sefie stuck her tongue out. 

Sweatdrops. 

Silence.

Tai cleared his throat. "Thanks for uh, sharing Sefie."

The girl poked her tongue between her front teeth in a grin. "Welcome!"

The earth element Digidestined gaped in realization. "Don't tell me they-" Tai nodded. "Are the ones-" Sora nodded. "There's only-"

"Yes, you're the fifth," completed Izzy.

"Wow," said Cody, still a little shocked. 

"What's going on!" demanded Travis.

"Anyway," said Sora. "You kids are the next generation of Digidestined. So far, there have been two in this era."

"You guys," said Jinjo.

"Correct," said Izzy. "We are the chosen ones."

"Chosen ones of what?" asked Max. His Pokémon question could wait. Something else was going on. Something bigger.

"We are destined to protect the world we live in as well as  the digital world." Izzy gave them a crash course in what the Digiworld was.

"I knew it I knew it I knew it!" cried Jinjo, practically dancing. "I knew it was possible. This is sooo kewl!"

Travis punched Cody's shoulder. "Hey, you never told us!"

"I couldn't." shrugged Cody. "Kind of a secret identity thing."

"So, what do we gotta do?" asked Jinjo, getting straight to the point. "You know, as "chosen ones'."

"We prefer to be called Digidestined," corrected Sora. 

 "Your mission, should you choose to accept, will be to protect the Digiworld, you Digipartners, and our own world from the evil perils that we are subjected to," said Yolei. 

Sefie scowled at them, "English/Japanese please." 

"Beat up the bad guys."

"Ohhhhkay!" 

"Which brings us to the reason we called you," said Tai. "Right now, there's this program that's plaguing the digiworld. We don't know what it is, or what it can really do. All that we know is that it's destroying the Digiworld."

"Then you do know what it can do," said Travis. Jinjo and Max elbowed him. "Ow."

"Why don't you fight it?" asked Max.

"We can't get into the digital world anymore," said Kari. "The Digiportal was infected by the virus. It won't accept our Digivices, so we can't go in."

"That kinda, you know, sucks," said Travis.

"Yes it does." Nodded Davis. "Hey, where's our informant guy?" 

"Right here!" Ntropy's digitalized voice squeaked from the speakers. "I assume all of the 03 DDs are there."

"Yup," said Cody on their behalf.

"Kewl. I got some goodies for you before we zap you into the Digiworld."

Izzy nodded and filled the rest of them in. "Yolei, Ntropy and I designed the Digivices ourselves, since they aren't pre-prophesized."

"They're not real digivices," said Ntropy. "Just tools that do the same things digivices do. You know, like keys to the Digiworld, linking DDs to their parters, communications…all that cool stuff."

"We designed it last night and Ntropy found a way to transfer them into the real world. Perfecto, right?" said Yolei.

"You're gonna make Digivices out of thin air?" asked Davis.

"Give or take a few molecules, yes," said Izzy. "Is the transfer portal ready?"

"Yup," replied Ntropy. "Uh, stand back from the screen, ok? I haven't worked the bugs out yet, so, uh, watch out… incoming!"

The screen glowed and an object came flying out of the computer. It hit the back wall with a loud thud.

"Steeeerike!" yelled Davis. 

TK picked up the package. It was a box wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap. "What the heck did you do?"

"Uh, I didn't want them to break, so I took extra precautions," said Ntropy meekly.

"Can I have the poppy thingies?" asked Sefie.

After a few minutes of hacking the bubble wrap off, TK opened it up. Inside were five pairs of gloves kicked up notches unknown to man with high-tech gadgets. 

"Those are for us?" said Travis.

Yolei took the box from TK and handed out the gloves. "Brown for earth," she handed the brown ones to Cody. "Blue for water." Sefie jumped with excitement. "White for wind." Travis grinned. "Yellow for Electric." Max nodded. "And red for Fire." Jinjo accepted the gloves with a bow. "Try 'em on for size."

The five of them yanked on their gloves. Sefie pouted a little bit. "They're too big." Sure enough, the gloves were several sizes too big. All of them were.

Yolei grinned. "Press the square button on the wrist." They did. The gloves suctioned the air out, leaving the gloves fitting form fitting comfortably. (AN: Think plug suits from Eva. They sooo rock!)

"Whoa, cool," said Jinjo turning her hands around. "One size does fit all."

"Whoaho!!" whistled Travis. "Totally wicked!" he turned his hands over. The middle three fingers of each glove were cut off in style, but the thumb was covered. On the top of his right hand was a small computer screen surrounded by touch keys. A swirled design was printed into the palm of both hands and on the top of his left. Each design was different for all of the support Digidestined, and so were the colors. Sefie was jumping up and down, showing hers to Izzy and Matt. 

"Lookie lookie Matt-Matt! It's light blue! Isn't it pweety? Kooshie! What'sit do?" 

"These are your 03 equivalent of Digivices. As you can see, we upgraded them from looking like Tamagachi beepers to more fashionable things."

"Your beeper?" asked Jinjo to Cody. He nodded and took it out to confirm it. The old Digivices really did look like chunky beepers.

"It's not just the style that makes it so spiffy," said Ntropy. "This design'll let you activate tools unlike the previous versions that didn't really do anything that you could control. If you raise your hand palm out to something, and say 'scan' you'll get information about it on the screen. You know, the window on the back of the glove."

 Izzy nodded and continued. "It's also the communications device. Only the left hand fingers of the owner can activate the buttons. Call it a security measure."

"What's the with thumb and pinky thing?" asked Travis. He stuck only the thumb and pinky out and held them up to his head like an imaginary phone. "Ring ring?"

"Exactly! How'd you know?" Travis sweatdropped,

"I wasn't serious."

"Those are your mics and receivers for the comm device. It's a little more private that way. It's easer and more inconspicuous to use when in a public place….like in school."

"That's silly," protested Max. "Everyone's going to think we're nuts."

"Well, it's better than talking to your beeper, right?" Max kept silent.

"What about the designs?" asked Jinjo, lightly tracing hers with a finger. "I hardly think they're ornamental.

"Those are your crest symbols. In addition, they're your keys to the Digiworld."

Izzy nodded. "Correct. To be admitted into the Digiworld, you must have both gloves and be wearing them. You put your right hand over your left, and match up the symbols facing the computer screen. It automatically activates the built in digiportal program and sends you into the Digiworld."

"Mimi would call this a fashion statement," laughed Yolei. 

"I call this an advantage," grinned Travis.

"Why don't you give it a shot?" encouraged Tai. 

The support Digidestined looked hesitantly at each other. "Uh, you can go first aniki," said Sefie, half hiding behind him and half pushing him to the computer.

"Chicken," said Travis. He looked at Max. "Why don't you go?"

"Uh…Ladies first?" Max looked at Jinjo. Her eyes widened.

"Uh…"

Cody rolled his eyes. "C'mon, we're a team now, and we'll go in as one, better?" They nodded. "At the count of three… One…two…three!" 


	9. We're Heeere

Chapter Nine: We're heeere!! 

Jinjo clamped her eyes shut, expecting being sucked in like a dust bunny in a vacuum, or a tingly sensation like they always described for transporters on Star Trek. Nothing happened. Thinking the portal didn't work, she cracked her eyes open. The computer wasn't there anymore, and the other kids weren't there either. "Oh my gosh…" 

The computers were replaced by lavish digitalized trees and outcrops of refrigerators and microchips hanging from lampposts. All of them were blocky in color. Travis, Max and Sefie still had their eyes closed while Cody was already taking in the surroundings. He didn't seem that disoriented despite the coloring. He noticed Jinjo. "Cool huh?"

 "Very." 

"You can open your eyes now," said Cody. Three pairs of eyes opened and three jaws dropped to the floor. Three yelps of surprise rang through the Digiworld.

"Wow…" whispered Max.

"Gotta be dreaming," said Travis. He pinched his arm. "Ow! I guess not."

"It's so pretty!" exclaimed Sefie. She knelt down and pushed her nose into the petals of a flower. "Oh, smells like strawberry ice cream."

"The Digiworld has a weird sense of humor," explained Cody. 

"Refrigerators, hanging microchip leaves…" observed Travis.

"Well, it's a bit weirder than usual," admitted Cody. "The coloring's real off."

"Like an old Sega Genesis videogame," said Max. Jinjo nodded.

 Cody held up his gloved right hand and spoke into it. "Guys, you there?"

"Right here, Cody," responded Davis. "How's it look in there?"

"Pretty nice actually."

A little line of scrolling text appeared below Davis's picture with Ntropy's overlapping voice. "I sent you guys to an uninfected place. Everything else is busted looking."

"Should we be thanking you?" asked Travis.

"Later would be nice."

"Now what?" asked Sefie. She stood up from where she was playing with the flowers. 

"I guess we look for our Digimon," said Cody.

"The little monster things that are supposed to help us," said Max. 

"And vice versa. They need our help too," pointed out Cody. 

Suddenly the ground started to shake. Sefie grabbed onto Travis's leg. "Wah! What's goin' on?"

The ground pushed up from under Max's feet sending him crashing into Jinjo and Cody. The three kids landed in a heap while something erupted from the ground. "Cody!"

"Yikes!" squealed Jinjo, she pointed wildly at a strange yellow creature. "What's that!?"

Cody pushed himself onto his elbows, trying to see. His eyes lit up. "Hey! Armadillomon!" He pushed Jinjo and Max off of him and hugged the Digimon. "How are you!"

"Just fine, Cody my man." He looked around at the four pairs of eyes staring at him. "Wanna introduce me to your new friends?"

"Oh yeah. Armadillomon, this is Travis, Sefie, Max, and Jinjo. Guys this is Armadillomon, my Digipartner."

"A pleasure to meet you," grinned the Digimon.

"You can talk?" said Max incredulously. 

"Always have," came the reply. "What made you think us Digimon couldn't?"

Max shrugged, "Nothing. Never mind." _Maybe Pichu's been tricking me all along…Is he here?_

"You look funny," commented Sefie. "Ina good way."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Armadillomon.

"You have a cool shell. Can I have a piggyback ride?" asked Sefie.

"Maybe later, kiddo."

"I say we do a bit of recon, get a feel for the place," said Travis. The four agreed. "Cody, lead the way."

"Huh? Why me?"

"You're a veteran Digidestined, duh!" said Jinjo. "You obviously know more than we do, so move it!" she lightly shoved him towards the forest. 

While Jinjo and Sefie kept close to Cody's side, Max and Travis held back a little. Max was busy swinging his head side to side, looking at the scenery while Travis was watching his reaction.

"You seem to be taking this rather well," commented Travis.

"Huh? Yeah, I guess…" 

"I'm here next to freaking out while you're just hanging out. We just found out we're digisomething's that are supposed to protect the world with little computer monster thingies that are supposed to be our partners with these funky looking ski gloves. Don't you find that a little strange?"

"No." Travis sweat dropped.

"Hey, pick up the pace, slowpokes!" called out Sefie. They were already a few feet behind.

"Yes ma'am!" called back Travis. He and Max accelerated to a trot. "So, how are we going to find some Digimon?"

"I know!" said Jinjo. She stuck out her hand. "Um, what could the command be…oh yeah. Locate! Keyword: Digimon!" The screen on the back of her glove flickered and a sonar type polar coordinate screen came up with a swarm of markers dotting it. "Whoa, there's lots!" she pointed west. "That a way!" 

"I think they're south," said Cody with a frown after activating his own command.

"I think we're surrounded," stated Armadillomon.

"I think you're right," said Cody.

A mouse looking Digimon leapt out of the bushes. It was light pink and if it had been under different circumstances, it would have been cute. Its Tail had a small blue ball of fur on the end and had two rows of teeth.

"I've never seen that kind of Digimon before," said Cody.

Max stared at the mouse. It reminded him of something. It wasn't until the mouse hissed did it really hit home.

"Rattata!!"

Max gasped and stepped back in surprise. Jinjo tore her eyes from the mouse to look at him. "Max?"

"It's- its- its-" stuttered Max.

"It's what?" said Sefie. "What?" Max was still in shock.

"Incoming!" called out Travis. He pointed to the sky. A bird swooped in next to the Rattata. It's feathers were silver, light blue and white. 

"Pidgey!!!" it screeched.

"What do we do, what do we do?" said Sefie hopping from foot to foot. Travis maneuvered Sefie behind him to protect her.

"Any ideas, Max?" asked Jinjo. Max was still in shock. "Hey dude, snap out o it." Max just stared at the Rattata and Pidgey. "Max? Hullloooo? Digiworld to Max? Come in?" she waved a hand in front of his face. Max frowned and started walking towards the front line of Digimon. Hey! Are you crazy? Get back here! You don't know what you're dealing with."

Max continued forward and knelt down in front of the mouse. When he finally answered Jinjo his voice had taken on a monotonous tone, as if reciting from memory. "Rattata. Rat type Pokémon. ~N~ element. Height: 1 foot. 8 lbs. Techniques: Tackle, Tail whip, Quick attack, Hyperfang, Focus Energy, Super fang. Bad against Rock. Evolves into Raticate at level 30." 

The D3s watched in fascination as Max reached out to pet the mouse. They half expected the rat to bite his hand off. Instead, it squeaked happily and let itself be patted again and again. "Max, what's going on?" said Cody.

Max was grinning ear to ear. The Rattata had accepted him. He hadn't lost his touch after all. A Pidgey, probably feeling a bit jealous, landed next to them. Max smoothed back its feathers. "Pidgey. Flying element. Height: 1 foot. 4 lbs. Techniques: Gust, quick attack, Sand attack, Whirlwind, wing attack, agility, and mirror move. Good against Bug, Grass and Fighting. Bad against Rock. Evolves at level 18."

The Pidgey nodded its feathered head as if honored Max remembered its stats. "Pidgeee!!!"

"Max?" repeated Travis. "What the heck are you doing? How do you know these Digimon?"

Max stood up and brushed himself off. "They're not Digimon. They're Pokémon."

The four D3 and Armadillomon blinked at him and chorused. "Huh?"

Max shrugged. He guessed it would be okay to tell them. "I come from the Pokémon islands. Little monsters like them," he motioned to the bird and rat. "Are everywhere. A lot of us go on journeys to capture, collect and train them to battle in tournaments." Max grinned. "I was a master. I won all of the league tournaments. I had to leave them all behind when I moved here. For some reason they can't survive outside of the Pokémon islands."

            "So, you're saying you live in the real world's version of the Digiworld," summed up Travis.

            "Yeah. I guess so."

Jinjo snorted, "Exotic species of animals, huh?"

            "Are Pokémon and Digimon the same thing?" asked Cody to Armadillomon.

            "Uh, honestly, I don't know." Said Armadillomon. "I knew a lot of weird Digimon I've never seen before were showing up, but I didn't think they weren't Digimon. This is the first I've hear of Pokémon."

            "Why don't you just ask them?" asked Jinjo. "No duh."

            "The girl's smart," grinned Cody.

            "Rattata, Pidgey. How did you get here? Don't you belong in the real world? In the Pokémon islands?" asked Max.

            "Piiigeeee pidge pidgeeee… Pidgey Pidgey. Pidgeee."

            "Huh?"

            "Great," muttered Travis. "The answer's right under our nose and we can't understand it because of a stupid language barrier."

            Before Travis could react Sefie dropped her knees in front of the two Pokémon and grinned at them. "Hi!" Travis paled and tried to snatch her away from impending harm but Jinjo caught his elbow and shook her head.

            Sefie kept on smiling at the Pokémon. "I'm Sefie. Sefie Sakura Dincht! You're Rattata and Pidgey, right?" The two Pokémon looked at each other then at Sefie and nodded. "Super duper mega kewl. You're not gonna hurt us, are you? We're just trying to help, if you let us."

            "Ratta ta tata Rata ta ta ta." Ratttata went close to Sefie and nudged her knee. She giggled and put out her hand to stroke the fur of its head. "So you understand me. N'fair they can understand us and we cant…understand them, I mean. Too bad we can't translate."

            The palm of Sefie's petting hand started to glow a little bit over Rattata's head. "Sefie!" yelled Travis. Are you okay?"

            Sefie blinked, "Uh, yah." She looked at her hand, "What happened?"

            "Your hand started glowing."

            "No kidding," murmured Sefie. 

            "No kidding what?" asked Travis.

            Sefie frowned at him, "Didn't you say something?" Travis shook his head. 

            "No one said anything," said Cody.

            "It was me," The voice was overlapped with a faint squeaking. Sefie looked at Rattata. It was grinning. 

            "Ooh! It's you!" she hugged the little mouse. "Hee hee. That is soooo kewl."

            "You can understand it?" asked Max.

            "Uh huh."

            "Maybe that's one of the functions Ntropy was talking about," said Cody. "Something Sefie said probably activated the translator."

            Max stuck his hand over Pidgey's head. "Translate!" His glove glowed yellow and the first thing he heard was Pidgey's chirpy voice congratulating him for figuring it out. "Wow, I wish I had this on my journey," mused Max. It would have made my life a lot easier."

            The remaining 03s activated their translators. "How about telling us what happened," said Travis.

            "Well," said Rattata. I was minding my own business looking for some pokeberries for lunch when I started to feel funny. Like being tickled all over at the same time. I think I fainted right afterwards. When I woke up I was here. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Viridian forest.

"Me too," chirped Pidgey. "I was chasing a Caterpie but I blanked out for a second and found myself chasing this weird wormy looking creature instead." 

"So you just blacked out and found yourselves here?" said Jinjo. 'They nodded. "That's not a lot of help."

"Sorry," apologized Pidgey and Rattata.

"What happened to you?" asked Max. "I mean, you're different colors." He turned to the rest of the 03. "Rattata used to be purple with one row of fangs and Pidgey was definitely not as multicolored.

Rattata 's cheeks grew a bit pinker.  "Uh, we were like this when we got here."

"Any thing else change?" asked Jinjo.

"Better yet," Travis open palmed the two Pokémon. "Scan." A red lettered holographic screen emerged from the back of Travis' hand reading the statistics of the Pokémon. "Max, take a look at this. I'm not familiar with this stuff." 

Max frowned, "It says here Pidgey's a wind type with a bit of ice and Rattata's a balloon type. That's not right. It's like Rattata got combined with a Jigglypuff and Pidgey with I dunno, an Articuno?"

"That would explain our new techniques," said Rattata. It puckered its fanged mouth and puffed up like a Jigglypuff. "Ta!" 

"what about you?" asked Pidgey. "Why are you humans here? Did you get scked in too?" it tipped its head to the side. "You didn't turn colors."

"We're digidestined," said Cody. "We protect the Digiworld. That's where you are right now."

"It's kinda like being stuck in a virtual reality inside a pokecenter computer," explained Max.

"Oohhh."

Rattata started to turn away. "Sorry, but I have to get going. I promised the pack I'm traveling with that I'd be back with food. I'll see you later!" With one final pat from Sefie, the Rattata scampered back into the woods.

"What about you?" asked Cody to Pidgey.

"I think I'll hang around for a little while. I have nothing else to do." It waved a wing at them. "Don't mind me. Do whatever you Digidestined are supposed to do." It flew up and perched on a nearby branch.

The 03 looked at each other. "Let's get the facts straight," said Cody.

"Detective Cody!" piped Sefie. "I'll take notes!" She pulled out a fuzzy blue notebook and a pink glitter pen from her pocket. 

"We should call the others," said Cody. He keyed in something on his glove and held it up to his face. "Guys, can you hear me?"

"I'm here," replied Ntropy. "

"We met up with two monsters," said Travis. "Max says they're Pokémon."

There was a stunned hesitation on Ntropy's end. "Pokémon?"

"That's what I said," said Max. "Are you familiar with Pokémon?"

"Very much so…Please continue." The D3s summed up everything the two Pokémon told them. "I'll look into it. Laterz." With that, Ntropy cut the link.

"We'd better get moving if we're going to gather more information for Ntropy." Said Jinjo.

"Ahem," coughed the Pidgey. It hopped down from its perch and looked up at them. "I don't mean to butt in on your business, but a nice place to start might be where a lot of us Pokémon are popping up."

"Sounds good to me," said Travis. He swept his hand. "Lead the way."


	10. Monolith Static

Chapter Ten: Monolith Static 

"Are we far?" asked Travis to Pidgey. The Digidestined were following Pidgey down a path. The multi blue hued bird was flying slightly above and ahead of them. Its shimmery colors were sparkling in the digi-sunlight.

"Not very," replied the bird. "I don't like to stray too far from it. You never know if a way to go home might show itself."

"Why didn't you say anything to us before, Max?" asked Jinjo.

Max shrugged. "You didn't ask?"

"Don't give me that excuse," said Jinjo.

"I didn't think they were related, really," said Max. "Pokémon are caught and trained. I had over three hundred of them. Here, only Digidestined have partners and most of the time you have only one, according to Cody."

"Right, except for Willis," Cody laughed. "He ended up being special."

Max's eyes lit up. "Hey! I just remembered something. A couple days ago I called Professor Monahan, this really nice lady who gave me my first Pokémon. Anyway, she said they've been having trouble with the Pokémon computer system. A lot of Pokémon have gone missing too. They think Team Rocket's behind it."

"Who's Team Rocket?" asked Armadillomon.

"They're this ring of criminals who try to steal as many rare Pokémon as they can," said Max. "I ran into them a couple times. They're easy to defeat."

"But the Pokémon isn't with team Rocket," said Cody. "They're here, in the Digiworld."

"But how?" asked Sefie.

"Here we are!" chirped the Pidgey. The bird swooped ahead into a clearing. It was a small town with a few houses and stores. All for them were blocky in color and jagged. Max swept his eyes over the area. 

"Pallet. It's Pallet Town."

"That's what I thought too," agreed Pidgey. "But it's not. It just looks like it."

"Like a copy?" said Sefie. "Copy-paste?"

"That's probably what happened." said Travis. "If whatever it is can take Pokémon away from Real Life then it can take the dimensions of some other stuff."

"Smart," said Jinjo. "I'm surprised. And I thought you were just some cutie hotshot guitarist skater," she teased. Travis glared at her.

"Aniki!" Sefie distracted Travis long enough for his annoyance to fade away.

"So, it's just like Pallet Town?" said Cody to Max.

"Mostly, except for that weird black thing."

"What weird black thing?" 

"That weird black thing." Max pointed. A few feet from the Pokécenter stood a twenty-foot tall black obsidian monolith. Unlike the rest of the town, it wasn't blocky and jagged. It was smooth. He and Cody called the rest of the team over. "What is it?"

"Looks like a tombstone," said Travis.

"Morbid thought" commented Jinjo.

"A lot of us materialized in front of it," said Pidgey. It raised a wing towards a group of Pokémon huddled together under a nearby tree. "Like them." Pidgey flew towards them. "Marril! Beedrill! Geodude!" 

"Pidgey! You're back! Did you get food?" asked the Marril. It didn't look much like a Marril though. Instead of being blue it was red and black. Its tail was shaped more like a Pikachu's and its ears were of a Houndour.

"Sorry. I ran into these guys." It flipped its head towards the Digidestined. "They're Digidestined!" Pidgey puffed up its feathers with pride. "They're' going to save us all!"

"Are they like Trainers or something?" asked Geodude. It was wet looking and had the golden scales of a Magikarp.

"Even better! They're special," said Pidgey.

"I don't trust anyone but trainers," huffed Beedrill. "They've got to have the badges."

"I'm a trainer," piped up Max. He unzipped his vest and showed the Pokémon his rows of badges. "I never leave home without them!" Sefie caught sight of the shiny things and immediately asked to look at them.

Beedrill relaxed. "Okay. You guys are fine with me."

"Did any more Pokémon materialize?" asked Jinjo.

"Sure, five more since Pidgey left and that was an hour ago," said Geodude. It pointed to a very shaken looking Meowth being comforted by Eggecutes. 

"Is it alright?" asked Sefie.

"Sure, just shocked," said Marril. "It really liked its owner. Poor little guy."

"How do they materialize?" asked Armadillomon.

As if the monolith had heard the question, it's smooth surface started to frizz with static snow. In front of the monolith, a figure started to take shape. After a moment or so of frizzing, it fully appeared. It was a little frog Pokémon. It was bright green with red and yellow warning spots running down its back. It stood there a moment, blinking its giant red eyes. "Ribbbbbbbiit?" as soon as the last rolling 'r' ended, it fainted.

"Aiee!" squealed Jinjo. She ran towards the little Pokémon and skidded to her knees. "Are you all right?" She picked it up and tapped its cheeks. "C'mon. C'mon now. Wake up!"

"Wait," Max rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a vial of something. "This is a revive." He handed it to Jinjo. Travis looked at him oddly. 

"Why, pray tell, do you have that?"

Max shrugged, "I forgot to clean my pockets out." 

Jinjo poured the contents of the vial into the frog's mouth. Its eyes blinked open and it sprang ten feet into the air.

"Riibbb!!!!!" It landed directly on Jinjo's head.

"Ieepppp!!!" Jinjo's head sagged under its weight. "What are you doing?"

The frog looked upside-down at her. "Ribbbbittt." It promptly jumped off her head and landed neatly on the ground. Jinjo knelt down and held her hand over its head. 

"Translate!"

"Sorry about that," said the Pokémon. "I was just a bit freaked out." It whipped its head side to side. "Hey, where am I? It's so blocky here. Kinda like leggo. I swallowed one once by accident, " It flicked its tongue out briefly. Travis and Sefie jumped back in surprise. It stretched out three feet. "It didn't taste very good." It looked up at the Digidestined. "Who are you?"

"I'm Cody, he's Travis, that's Sefie, That's Max and the one you landed on is Jinjo," said Cody.

"Well, I'm Ribmon," said the Pokémon. 

"I've never heard of you before," said Max. "And I was a trainer."

"Well, there's a lot more of us out there then you humans realize." Retorted the Pokémon. "You guys just didn't get to my area yet. Ha!"

"You're in the Digiworld." Said Sefie. "Don't ask why 'cause we don't know either."

"That's a lot of help chica," said the frog rolling its eyes. It smacked its lips. "Wow, my mouth feels hot." It flickered its tongue again. This time, the whole tongue was encased in flames." Ribmon pulled its tongue back in. "What?!"

"Your data was altered when you went from the Pokémon world to the Digiworld," said Jinjo. "You must have changed from whatever element you were before to a fire element."

"Gotcha," said Ribmon. It fanned its mouth. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"I hear ya." Said Pidgey nodding agreement.

Ribmon eyed Pidgey from talons to feathered crown. "What? What's your element?"

"Wind."

"Big change." Ribmon rolled his eyes around again.

"I'm a bit of ice too," said Pidgey indignantly.

"Again, big change." 

"You got beef with me, chicken legs?" said Pidgey. "Oh, excuse me, tastes like chicken. You're not good enough to be a chicken."

"What was that Popsicle tail?" Pidgey reflexively looked back at its tail feathers. Sure enough, he was had gotten so riled up that it had stood up on end, looking like blue Popsicle sticks.

Ribmon and Pidgey glared daggers at each other.

Travis, Jinjo, Cody and Max exchanged looks. Jinjo elbowed Cody lightly and whispered. "Do you think their brains got jumbled too? Cuz I'm sure not all of it's there." Cody snickered but ended up coughing in his polite attempt at covering it up.

"Um, aniki?" Sefie tugged on Travis' jacket sleeve.

"Yeah Sef?" replied Travis, though he didn't divert his eyes form the arguing Pokémon."

"What does that say?"

"Sound it out."

Sefie tugged on his sleeve again. "Aniiiiikiii! Loooook!"

Travis sighed and looked down at Sefie. She was pointing at the monolith. "What is it?"

"Look," Sefie insisted. "Look! Look!" she jabbed her pointing finger at the column. Sefie scowled, seized his wrist and dragged him over to it. She jabbed her finger at the monolith once more. "Look! Closely!" 

Travis squinted, then blinked, then yelled, "Hey guys, check this out! Sefie found something." The 03s and the Pokémon ran over. "There's something written on this thing."

The kids and Pokémon looked at monolith. Etched deeply into the stone were lines and lines of symbols all the way to the very top of the monolith.

"Hieroglyphics?" asked Sefie. 

"Definitely not Egyptian," said Jinjo.

"It's Digimon language," said Cody. He stepped up to it and traced a couple of the symbols with his fingers. "Well, some of it anyway. I know a little Digimon writing, not an awful lot though. Izzy's the fluent one of the bunch. A few of them I don't understand-

"Pokémon!" cut in Max. "I know them! It's in Pokémon language too!" He pointed at a symbol. "That means Pokémon…and that one," he pointed to another, "Means trainer."

"What else?" asked Jinjo.

Max shook his head. "I don't know…I never finished my Pokémon language class."

"Something tells me whatever that thing says explains everything," said Ribmon.

"No kidding, Chicken," said Pidgey.

"Lay off, Pops."

"Quiet for a second, will you?" said Jinjo impatiently. She activated her glove's communications function. "Ntropy, you there?"

"Yah, go ahead."

"We're in a place Max says looks like a place called Pallet town. There's this giant twenty foot monolith here. Every time it goes static every…uh, help me here, guys."

"Twenty minutes or so," said Pidgey.

"Right, twenty minutes or so, a new jumbled up Pokémon appears."

"Maybe that's what's controlling the element switching."

"Maybe, but that's not what we called for," said Jinjo. "There's writing on it. Cody and Max say it's a combination of Pokémon and Digimon languages."

"Hybrid, hmm, so you want me translate it."

"Yup."

"Right…Look, I'm not fluent, and I'm pretty sure Izzy isn't either." Ntropy sighed. "Whatever, I'll rig up something." 

"That's all we ask." Jinjo flicked her wrist to turn the link off. 

"So…all we do is wait?" asked Max.

"Guess so," said Jinjo.

"We never just wait," said Cody. "Something always happens."

"A little paranoid, aren't you?" said Travis.

"He's right," said Armadillomon. "We know from experience.

A sharp hiss filled the air, followed by static. All of them clamped their hands to their ears. "The monolith!" yelled Jinjo. "It's gonna blizzard again!" 

"Let's get outta here!" yelled Travis. He grabbed Sefie's wrist and pulled her into a run away from the monolith. The rest of them followed suit. 

"There! Behind the pokécenter!" yelled Max. They ducked behind the building and poked their heads out from behind it to watch.

"Is it just me or is it flickering more than before?" asked Armadillomon.

"Not just you," said Pidgey. All eyes were on the monolith. "It's going haywire!"

"I'd hate to see the Pokémon that comes out of that," muttered Jinjo.

"Too late." Said Cody. "Look!" 

A large figure started to manifest. It was as large as the monolith. It's image flickered wildly, it's colors changing constantly. It wasn't smooth like the other Pokémon that had come out from the monolith, but blocky in color and jagged like the rest of the Digiworld. Not to mention a lot more messed up. 

"It looks like my ice cream after I mush it all up," said Sefie. 

"What is it? Max? Cody?" asked Travis. They shrugged. "C'mon guys, you're the two experts here."

"I haven't a clue," admitted Cody. "I know Digimon, not…not…whatever that is."

"It's…it's…" Max shook his head. "I don't know." He reached up to scratch his neck. He looked at his glove. "Oh yeah!" He stuck his hand out. "Scan!!"

"What's'it say?" said Sefie.

"Processing…processing…Darn!" Max frowned. "I guess it's confused." He studied the monster. "It looks…familiar though…" He yanked out his pokedex and pointed it at the monstrosity. "Arrg. Nothing!"

A loud roar filled the air. The monster was snapping its head side-to-side, sweeping his gaze about the area. It spotted a group of Pokémon huddling behind a tree. 

"Jeez! It's heading for 'em!" said Travis. 

"We haveta do something!" pleaded Sefie.

"Right!" Cody looked at Armadillomon. "YOu up for it?"

"As always Cody."

"Let's go." Cody started to walk out towards the monster when Jinjo grabbed his arm. 

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Help those Digimon, now let me go!"

"Are you nuts?"

"Yes. They need help," insisted Cody. He jerked his arm away and dashed out with Armadillomon. Cody pulled his old digivice out as he and his partner skidded to a stop just a few feet from the monster.

"Armadillomon digivolve to Ankylomon!"

Three long seconds passed as nothing happened. Cody and Armadillomon looked at each other. "Uh oh," said Armadillomon. 

"Of course! My old digivice doesn't work. That means you can't digivolve."

The monster turned around, finally noticing Cody and Armadillomon.

"Double uh oh," said Armadillomon. "Regular attacks?"

"Go for it."

With an encouraging war cry, Armadillomon burrowed himself into the ground and shot up below the monster. 

The monster reeled back, shook its head from surprise and swiped a hand at Armadillomon, knocking him off to the side.

"Armadillomon!" cried Cody rushing to his friend's side.

"I'm ok. I'm ok." Armadillomon shook his head. "Charge!" He got up and attacked again.

"Armadillomon doesn't stand a chance by himself," moaned Jinjo.

"Pidgey, can you attack?" asked Jinjo 

"Uh, I think so." 

"Ribmon?" asked Travis

"Let's go!"

Ribmon and Pidgey shot out from behind the Pokécenter and flanked Armadillomon.

"All for one, and one for all!" yelled Ribmon.

Jinjo, Travis, Max and Sefie joined Cody on the front lines. "What they said," grinned Travis. Cody grinned back.

Armadillomon broke off from the trio and started to claw at the monster. Ribmon and Pidgey looked at each other. "What do we do?" said Ribmon.

"Lick it or something!" yelled Jinjo. "You've got a fire tongue, remember?"

"Oh yeah, right!" Ribmon started lashing at the monster with his tongue.

"Peck 'em!" yelled Travis. "Beat sand into its eyes or something!"

"How'd you know I could do that?" said Pidgey. It shrugged then flapped its wings hard sending an icy whirlwind at the monster. 

"Go go go!" cheered Sefie.

Travis looked over at Max. "Any luck at scanning this guy?"

"Thinking…thinking…thinking…crash it all!" yelled Max with supreme frustration.

"I'll take that as a no."

Pidgey swooped down and sent am icy whirlwind attack at the monster. "Is that all you can do, Pops?" jeered Ribmon.

"It's better than thinking you can lick the thing to death!" countered Pidgey.

"Less talking, more attacking!" scolded Armadillomon, narrowly missing another swipe.

"Are we even hurting this guy?" asked Pidgey.

"Nope," said Armadillomon. It's too strong." He scowled, "This guys' gotta be at least a champion level Digimon."

"I got it! I got it!" yelled Max. He waved his hands. "The scan's done."

"Well, read the bloody thing already you git!" yelled Jinjo back.

Max blinked, "Bloody…git?"

"She lived in England for a few weeks," explained Travis.

"Right…" Max started to read off the scan results. "Level N/A, HP N/A, PP N/A…attacks unknown…what's going on?"

"That's probably the Digimon part of it," said Cody. "Digimon don't really have levels while I'm guessing Pokémon do."

"Yeah…Elemental…Wind! Use wind against it!"

"Right! Pidgey!" yelled Travis. "You heard the dude."

"Whatever ya say," said Pidgey. Pidgey flapped his wings towards each other sending a strong blast of air at the monster. The monster tipped backwards a bit but regained balance soon after.

"Arg!" cried Max. "It changed element!"

"What is it now?" asked Cody.

"Ice."

"You heard 'em Ribmon!" yelled Jinjo. "Fire's good against ice, right?"

"I think…" Ribmon hopped high into the air and flickered his tongue. A fireball rolled out from it and flew towards the monster. The flames hit the monster's chest but scattered upon impact.

"It's water now." Max frowned, "Darn, where's Pichu when I need him?" he shook his head. "Cody-

Cody cut him off. "Armadillomon, it's your turn." Armadillomon nodded and attacked. No effect.

"What is with this guy?" said Sefie.

"I think…I think I know," said Max slowly. "It's a trainer legend. No one really believes it though. Only a couple people have seen it and they were crazy."

"Get on with it Max," said Travis impatiently.

"Well-

"Guys guys guys!" screeched Sefie. "Lookit!" She pointed franticly at the monolith again. It had started to blizzard again, though not as wildly as it had when the monster had appeared. This time, a small Pokémon appeared at the base unconscious."

"Looks like a Ditto," said Max.

"What's a Ditto?" asked Jinjo. She waved her hand before Max could launch into a really really really long explanation. "Forget it, I'll look it up later."

"The big monster thing's gonna hurt it!" yelled Sefie. The monster had forgotten all about Armadillomon, Ribmon and Pidgey and was starting towards the downed Pokémon. "We gotta help it!"

"It's going berserker again!" said Jinjo. Her eyes went wide. "Uh oh, we're screwed." Two more monsters had appeared, each as messed up as the first. The monsters looked at each other then down at the ditto. Two of them suddenly turned to the Digidestined team and the Digimon/Pokémon while the other one remained interested in the ditto.

"Uh oh…" echoed Cody. They Digidestined started back away from the three monsters. They backed right into the Digimon. 

"Anyone got a plan?" asked Armadillomon.

"Yeah, I got one." Said Travis. "Run!"

"Yup." Chorused Jinjo, Max and Cody. 

"NO!" cried Sefie. The older kids looked at her incredulously. Sefie wrenched her hand away from Travis' hand and bolted straight for the ditto.

"Sefie!" Travis tore after her. Sefie darted in between the monster's legs and snatched the ditto into her arms. 

"Gotcha Ditto. That's your name, right?" she asked the pale blue Pokémon. It blinked its eyes at her then nodded. "It's ok. I'll getcha outta here… she looked up at the monsters now surrounding her. "Somehow…Eep."She wiggled her way backwards, as far as she could get from the monsters. She crashed into the monolith, cornered. "Ani- ani- aniki!"  She set her jaw and stood up with the Ditto still in her arms. She whipped her head around, looking desperately for a way out.

"Hey, block head!" a large rock hurled itself at the monster closest to Sefie. "Over here!"

Sefie and the monster turned towards the voice. Travis was tossing a rock in his hand. "Come and get me!" he threw another rock, nailing one of them on the head.. 

A high-pitched beeping sound caught Sefie's attention. It was her glove. She raised it to her ear and mouth. "Uh, hello?"

"Sef, it's me, Jinjo." Came the voice.  Sure enough, Jinjo was on the other side of the monster speaking into her hand. "Look, we're going to attack this dude with all we've got at one time. Is that ditto of yours strong enough to attack? We'll need to get this guy from all sides."

Sefie looked down at the squirming Pokémon. "Ditto? Can you attack? We kinda need your help."

"Dit dit," nodded Ditto.

"She says yeah..I think."

"She?" questioned Jinjo. "How you figure? Whatever. On the count of three, ok?" she signaled to the other Digidestined. "One…Two…Three!"

"Now!" shrieked Sefie. Dittocatapulted from sefies arms and torpedoed towards the monster. She would have looked exactly like a horizontally falling drop of water if not for her eyes and mouth. She hit simultaneously with the other four attacks. The monster screeched in pain and doubled over.

"Sefie-chan! Iku zo!" yelled Travis. He was waving franticly at her. The monsters were too busy tending to their fallen comrade to notice her. She barreled out. She and Travis regrouped with the others.

By then the monster had recovered and was angrily started looking for them.

The Digimon and Digidestined looked at each other and came to a sound unanimous plan of action. "RUN!"


	11. Don't Mess With N

Chapter Eleven: Don't Mess with ~N~ 

            Ditto watched the Digiworld bob up and down before her eyes. She squirmed around a bit in the restraining clamp the human girl had on her. The girl that had saved her was running for her life with the rest of the human kids and the weird Pokémon, thus the bobbing. Ditto extended one pseudopod up to tap the girl called Sefie's shoulder. "Dit dit?"

            Sefie spared a glance at Ditto after jumping over a rather large root. "Wait, wait," Sefie held her hand above ditto's head, well, what she thought was ditto's head anyway. "Translate." 

            Ditto tapped Sefie's shoulder again. "You know you could stop running. I think we're pretty far now."

            "Ya think?"

            "Yeah." Sefie screeched to a halt, yanking Travis back as well. He had been holding onto her wrist.

            "Yo what's the deal?" exclaimed Travis.

            "We think we're far enough." Said Sefie. Travis cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled. Cody, Max and Jinjo backtracked to them.

            "What's up?" asked Cody. "Are you hurt?"

            "No, just think we're far enough." said Ditto. It bounced out of Sefie's grasp. "If they haven't caught up to us by now, then they won't at all. At least, not for now."

            Pidgey swooped down and landed in front of the squishy blue-purple Pokémon "Who are you anyway?" 

            "Who are you?" mimicked Ditto.

            "Pidgey."

            "Ditto."

            "You're not a Pidgey."

            "I know. I'm Ditto."

            "But you're not a Pidgey. So what are you?"

            "Ditto!"

            "Stop copying me!" squawked Pidgey. Feathers flew everywhere.

            Ditto sweat dropped. Ribmon gave Pidgey a smack to the head. "Duh! Where have you been, Pops? She's a Ditto! Haven't you heard of them before? I mean, didn't you travel with your trainer?" Pidgey muttered something about not having a trainer. Ribmon shrugged. "Well I didn't have one either and I knew about 'em."

            "Zip it, Chicken," hissed Pidgey.

            "Break it up guys," said Jinjo, stepping between them. 

            "I had a trainer," said Ditto thoughtfully. "He never took me out of the Pokémon Denter though. He won me at the slots and that was the last I saw of him."

            "What a bad trainer," said Max with disgust. He made a point for visiting each and every one of his Pokémon at least once or twice a month. He suddenly realized he hadn't been able to do so since he had moved to Odaiba. "Aw…" Max pouted a bit.

            "I'd hate to be OT," said Cody. "But what was those things back there?"

            "Yeah Max," said Jinjo. "You mentioned something about knowing what they were."

            Max snapped out of his misery. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I think they're Missingno. They're these mythical messed up Pokémon seen along the coast of Cinnabar Island…but that doesn't matter."

            "Why?" asked Travis.

            "Because you don't know where Cinnabar Island is or what it is," said Max. "If you did, you'd know that a lot of weird stuff happens on the east coast of that island."

            "Such as…" prompted Jinjo. 

"Such as high level Pokémon you wouldn't normally see…"

            "I HEARD THAT!" screeched a very loud electronic voice.

Cody unclamped his hands from his ears for a moment. "Ntropy?!"

            "Never use that word!" came the reply.

            "How long have you been listening?" demanded Max. He had a thing about privacy.

            "Long enough to hear that- that- evil word!"

            "What evil word?" asked Sefie. "Like-" Travis covered Sefie's mouth with his hand, preventing any examples from coming from her mouth.

            "The …" there was a dramatic pause. "~N~ word."

            "Normal?" asked Max. A sharp electric jolt from his glove got his attention. It was like getting shocked after taking off a fleece sweater. "Yikes! Hey! You did that didn't you?" 

            "Heh heh heh."

            Max rubbed his hands together. "You have something against the ~N~ word or something."

            "Gee, how'd ya guess?"

            There was only one psychopath in the world that had something against nor…er, ~N~ word, and he was pretty sure Ntropy wasn't his sister. Alexis was a bit too psycho to be Ntropy the super hacker person, but that didn't mean they didn't know each other. "Do you know my sister? Alexis…er, or Rita?"

            There was a pause on the other end. "You could say that."

            "Figures." Said Max as he rolling eyes.  

            "Anywayz…" said Ntropy. "Whatcha been doin'?"

            "Running for our lives." Replied Travis. The five Digidestined quickly filled Ntropy in on the messed up monsters.

            "Sounds like MissingNo." Said Ntropy thoughtfully.

            Max slapped his forehead. "I said that!"

            "Look, I think we're getting a bit over our heads in this Pokémon stuph." Said Ntropy. "We're gonna need some Pokémon history."

"I took a Pokémon history class," protested Max.

"Yeah, but do you remember any of it?" countered Ntropy. "You'd better get in touch with Professor Monahan."

"Didn't Max mention her before?" said Jinjo.

            A window popped open in front of them. A file containing a picture of Professor Monahan appeared. "She's a Pokémon professor. Just ask Max, she was his advisor."

            "Yup," said Max. "She's pretty cool."

            "Oh, before you go see her, I kinda found out a bit of stuph." Said Ntropy. "Remember those digipartners the 01 and 02s were talking about?" they nodded. "Well, seeing that you ran into that MissingNo, you're gonna need some permanent ones to help you out. So…you might want to recruit to those kewl little guys that saved your butts today." 


	12. Eeny Meeny Miney MO!

Chapter 12: Eeny meeny miney MO! 

            "Pardon me," said Pidgey doing a very haughty snooty sounding British accent. "But…What the heck's going on here?!" Pidgey flapped its wings excitedly filling the air with silvery blue feathers.

            "Chill out, Pops," said Ribmon rolling her eyes. 

            Ditto stretched a bit and wordlessly made a question mark of herself.  

Jinjo paced in front of the Pokémon like a drill sergeant inspecting a line of cadets. "We're going to find out what's making you Pokémon disappear from the Pokémon world."

"And figure out what's those MissingNos" are up to," added Cody.

"That kinda includes doing the kind of stuff like what we did today," said Travis.

"You guys in or what?" said up Sefie. Jinjo and Travis sighed. Trust Sefie to be blunt.

"I'm in," said Ribmon.

"Me too," Added Pidgey.

Ribmon cast a sidelong glance at the bird and muttered, "Copy cat."

"Aw, go lay an egg," sneered Pidgey.

"I'll go too," said Ditto.

"To lay an egg?" asked Pidgey. Ditto sweatdropped

"Ya gotta pair up with someone though," Said Max. 

Ditto automatically swirled itself around Sefie's ankle. "I guess you're mine now, huh?" giggled Sefie.

"Dit dit dit!"

"That was easy," Laughed Jinjo. She looked at Ribmon critically and folded her arms. "Whatcha say, frog? Think you can handle me?"

"Think you'd be able to get rid of me?" countered Ribmon.

"Aite then," grinned Jinjo. Ribmon jumped onto Jinjo's shoulder and hung off it. 

Pidgey looked helplessly at Travis and Max, the remaining Digidestined without partners. Pidgey swallowed hard. He kept looking at Travis but seemed like he didn't want to offend Max. "Uh…"

Max shrugged. "Go with Travis Pidgey. It's ok with me."

"Cool with you?" asked Travis.

Pidgey nodded enthusiastically and flew in circles around Travis. Travis' eyes began to spin in their sockets. He reached out and grabbed one of Pidgey's legs. The bird squawked in surprise as he hung upside down in Travis' grip. Pidgey grinned. "Sorry. A tad excited."

"Understandable," replied Travis.

"Let me go, could ya?"

"Oh, right," Travis tossed him into the air to give him a bit of a jump-start. Pidgey swooped down at Ribmon for a quick buzz before landing on Travis' shoulder.

"So, are we going or what?" asked Jinjo impatiently.

"Go? Where?" asked Max.

"To that Professor of yours, of course," Said Jinjo. "Monahan or something?"

"Oh right…" Max trailed off. "Uh, how are we going to get there?"

"Easy!" said Ntropy. "I already got the codes to the digiportal from Izzy."

"Duh, well, what good is that?" asked Travis. "We're talking about the Pokémon islands, wherever the heck they are."

"Again, I repeat," said Ntropy, clearly sounding impatient. "I got the codes to the D-Portal. It'll take you out of the Digiworld, a world that exists all over world…" 

"Right!" cried Cody. "We could exit the Digiworld anywhere we want then." He scowled, "Why couldn't we do this before? It would have saved us from that harrowing trip to America with Yolei's connections."

"We're not confined to the computer club room terminal?" asked Jinjo.

"Thanks to Willis you're not," said Ntropy. "Cody, how do you think Mimi was able to visit you guys so often?"

"Oh."

"Guys, are you ready?" asked Ntropy. There were a number of 'yeah's from the gang. "Ok, I'm uploading the codes into your gloves." They looked on their glove screens. A little smiley face and check mark flashed at them. "I'll teach you how to select the destination later, but for now, just stick your fist in the air and yell 'Exit'. "

"Are they coming with us?" asked Cody motioning to the Digimon.

"No can do," said Ntropy. "If I knew how to do hat, I'd have all fo the other Pokémon out of there already." 

"Aw…" pouted Ditto. Sefie patted its head.

"Don't worry," said Sefie. "We'll find a way to get everyone home. We'll be back before you know it."

"Guys, let's go," said Cody. "At three again. One…two…three…Exit!"


	13. Just Dropping By

Chapter 13: Just Dropping By 

"Why won't you work?" growled Professor Monahan. She smacked the computer screen with her open palm. "C'mon." How much worse could her day get. First she lost half the Pokémon in the trainer storage system to unknown reasons, second she had to explain it to all of the sad/angry trainers, third she had to explain it to Pokémon League officials who were just as bewildered as she was, fourth the pizza she had ordered hadn't come yet. "Thirty minutes or less my foot," she muttered. "C'mon!"

She slapped the screen one last time. The flickering screen steadied. "Finally, maybe now I can get some work done." Spoke too soon. A little ripple effect started on the middle of the screen. "What?" The ripple grew larger until it reached the edges of the screen. "Gary had better not have messed with my screensaver again."  She peered at the ripple. It looked three-dimensional. Like a portal, if there was such a thing. 

The faint yelling of children caught her attention. She checked her speakers. It wasn't from there. She stared at the monitor. It was coming from the screen, from the swirl to be more exact. "What's going on?"

The swirl of color at the center of the portal began to take shape, growing bigger and bigger until she could make out a clump of people flying towards her. It wasn't possible. Logic told her that people could not come out of a computer screen, then again instincts told her they were coming at her pretty fast. Professor Monahan's chose to stuff logic in the little closet at the back of her mind and DUCK! She scrambled off her seat and crouched behind it.

"Aieee!!!"

Professor Monahan peered around her chair to find a crumpled pile of kids in front of the computer. She saw a girl around twelve with auburn hair untangle herself enough to shake an angry fist at the computer screen. "Ntropy! If we ever figure out who the heck you are I'm strangling you!"

"Honestly," said a blue haired boy as he stood and dusted himself off. "Can't you make the landing a bit gentler?"

"Sorry," said a digitalized voice from the computer. "I'm working on it."

"Can I wear bubble wrap next time?" asked the smallest of the kids.

"Enough with the bubble wrap!" exclaimed the kid with the blue hair.

 "Hey guys," said a very familiar looking boy. "You ok?" He looked really familir. She just couldn't place it. Spikey dark brown hair, glasses, vest and…Professor Monahan cut of her internal monologue as she noticed the kid reach into his pocket to retrieve a little red computer. A Pokédex. "Hey guys, my Dex is working."

She knew that voice. "Maxim Fernando!" she sprang out of her hiding place and continued to scold the poor boy. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in Japan? Who are these kids? How did you get in here? What did you do to my computer? You better not have been messing with the transporter system."

Max blinked. "Uh, hi, Professor Monahan.


End file.
